Event
IREAP's 2025 Paint Branch Distinguished Lecture in Applied Physics
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
3:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.
Stamp Student Union Building, Prince George's Room
Meredith Pettit
301 405 4951
mpettit1@umd.edu
https://ireap.umd.edu/events/paint-branch-distinguished-lecture-applied-physics-2025
Please join us for the 10th annual Paint Branch Distinguished Lecture in Applied Physics on the 9th of December at 3:30PM. Professor Steven Strogatz, from Cornell University, will be speaking this year (details below).
Date: December 9th, 2025
Place: Adele H. Stamp Student Union Building, Prince George's Room
Time: 3:30PM Lecture/3PM Refreshments
Speaker: Professor Steven Strogatz, Cornell University
Title: Simple Models of Synchronization
Abstract: At this very moment, your heart is beating thanks to thousands of pacemaker cells in your sinoatrial node, all firing in near-perfect unison. Similar acts of spontaneous synchronization appear throughout nature—in fireflies flashing in unison, neurons firing together, and even in networks of pendulum clocks or metronomes. Simplified mathematical models of these self-synchronizing systems have sparked new insights in nonlinear dynamics, often yielding surprising applications far beyond their biological roots. In this talk, Prof. Strogatz will explore two case studies: (1) Charlie Peskin’s influential model of cardiac pacemaker cells, which inspired advances in communications and electrical engineering; and (2) recent progress and open questions on how the structure of a Kuramoto oscillator network influences its ability to synchronize.
