Lamb public lecture

The Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics at Oxford is hosting a new annual series of lectures: the Willis Lamb Lectures in Theoretical Physics. Willis E. Lamb Jr, Nobel Prize in Physics 1955, was Wykeham Professor at Oxford from 1956-1962.

For the inaugural Lamb public lecture, we are delighted to welcome Professor L Mahadevan from Harvard University where he is Professor of Physics, de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics and Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology as our inaugural Lamb Lecturer.

The wisdom of the swarm: physics and behaviour

'Super-organisms solve complex physiological problems collectively, sans plan or planner, on scales much larger than the individual. Motivated by observations in the field and in the lab, I will describe our attempts to understand how different orders of social insects - termites, bees and ants - actively regulate their micro-environment by constructing and deconstructing complex functional architectures. By linking physics and behaviour on multiple scales using local sensing and action mediated by global fields, these examples point to a kind of embodied intelligence. To synthesise these complex collective behaviours in-vitro, I will close by describing our experiments using simple robots that perhaps sharpen some questions raised a long time ago by Tinbergen and others.'

The talk will be followed by Q&A and a drinks reception.

While the event is free to attend, please note that registration in advance is required. 

As well as the Lamb public lecture, Professor L Mahadevan will be giving two technical lectures to the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford: Morphogenesis: geometry, physics and biology on 12 June 2023 and Morphogramming: geometry, physics and technology on 13 June 2023.