Harvard University
Population waves have played a crucial role in evolutionary history, as in the "out of Africa" hypothesis for human ancestry. Population geneticists and physicists are now developing methods for understanding how mutations, number fluctuations and selective advantages play out in such situations. Once the behavior of pioneer organisms at frontiers is understood, genetic markers can be used to infer information about growth, ancestral population size and colonization pathways. Neutral mutations optimally positioned at the front of a growing population wave can increase their abundance by "surfing" on the population wave. Experimental and theoretical studies of this effect will be presented, using bacteria and yeast as model systems.
He has given this as a public lecture at the Aspen center for physics:
http://www.grassrootstv.org/search.aspx?term=david%20r.%20nelson
A brief biosketch of David Nelson ---
Education and Appointments:
1975 Ph.D., Cornell
1975-1978 Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows
1978- Professor of Physics, Harvard
1992-2005 Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics, Harvard
2005- Solomon Professor of Biophysics, Harvard
Selected Honors:
1984-1989 MacArthur Fellow
1993-1994 Guggenheim Fellow
1994 - Member, National Academy of Sciences
2003 Bardeen Prize for research in superconductivity
2004 Oliver Buckley Prize for soft condensed matter physics