Allesina λab Theoretical ecology & more

Eyeball

Here come old flat top </br> He come groovin’ up slowly</br> He got joo joo eyeball </br> Come together </br> Lennon  & Mccartney We have been working on the applications of random matrix theory to ecology for four years. By now, it is quite clear that the most important challenge ahead is to extend the theory to th... Read more

Metapop

In a new paper, Jacopo, Gyuri and I studied the persistence of metapopulations living in a landscape where patches of suitable habitat are scattered randomly. We found strong connections between metapopulation theory, the mathematics of Random Geometric Graphs, and the physics of disordered systems. You can find the paper here: Jacopo Grilli, ... Read more

More is more (when it comes to abstracts)

In the summer of 2013, I was coordinating a class meant to prime incoming graduate students on what it takes to succeed in graduate school. One session dealt with writing good abstracts. You have heard the usual advice: keep it short and simple, avoid jargon, write it for a general reader, etc. I thought that it would be fun to test whether fol... Read more

Random matrices in ecology: the challenges ahead

In October 2013, I was a speaker at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society of Population Ecology, held in Osaka, Japan. The invitation came with the possibility of writing an article for a special issue of the journal Population Ecology.   I thought that this would be a great occasion to review the progress my laboratory has made on the study ... Read more

Traveling in Northern Europe

Just before the Winter break, I’ve been traveling in Sweden and the Netherlands. In Linköping, I gave a 3-hr lecture on the stability of large ecological systems for the 6th Swedish Meeting in Mathematics in Biology. It was a great experience, and it was so nice to get to see my former postdoc Anna Eklöfand spend some time with her and her famil... Read more