Hugh C. Morris Lecture at UAlberta: Jonathan Rubin

Parkinson’s disease is a debilitating condition causing highly disruptive motor complications. Although this condition has long been recognized and treated medically, many aspects of the disease and its treatment are not well understood. In fact, there are a range of opportunities for the application of mathematical and computational methods to provide a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in Parkinson's disease and to optimize therapeutic approaches.

In this talk, I will discuss how a mathematical model can be developed and used to suggest new predictions about the emergence of neuronal activity associated with parkinsonism, about the ways in which this disturbed activity can lead to motor symptoms, and about how stimulation-based therapy might help to counteract this process.

Speaker Biography:

Dr. Rubin majored in Mathematics as an undergraduate at The College of William and Mary and received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Brown University in 1996. He was a Zassenhaus Assistant Professor and then a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Mathematics at The Ohio State University before joining the Pitt Mathematics faculty in 2000. In addition to his Mathematics position, he is a Graduate Faculty member, a Center for Neuroscience at University of Pittsburgh Graduate Training Faculty member, a member of the Center for the Basis of Neural Cognition, an affiliate of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and a Visiting Professor in Computational Biology. Eleven students have completed their Ph.Ds at Pitt under Dr. Rubin's supervision.

About the Hugh Morris Lecture Series:

The Hugh C. Morris Lecture Series was generously endowed by Dr. Hugh Morris (1932-2012), former Chair of the PIMS Board of Directors, and long-time friend of the mathematical sciences. Dr. Morris had more than 40 years of experience in the mineral industry, including a term as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Imperial Metals, and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Morris was a member of NSERC's Council and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Lithoprobe Project. Past lectures in this series are available here.