Event Date
Speaker: Sangwon Hyun (Assistant Professor of Statistics, UC Santa Cruz)
Title: "Learning the ocean's microbial ecology using statistical mixture models"
Abstract: Although microscopic, phytoplankton in the ocean are extremely important to all of life and are together responsible for as much photosynthesis as all plants on land combined. Oceanographers now routinely collect single cell data in real-time while onboard a moving ship, which yields high-resolution information about the distribution of phytoplankton across thousands of kilometers. I present new statistical methods designed to estimate time-varying phytoplankton sub-populations from flow cytometry data while simultaneously identifying the specific environmental drivers. We apply this model to data from numerous oceanographic ships deployed in the North Pacific ocean and learn new insights about the relationship between marine microbial populations and environmental factors.
Although microscopic, phytoplankton in the ocean are extremely important to all of life and are together responsible for as much photosynthesis as all plants on land combined. Oceanographers now routinely collect single cell data in real-time while onboard a moving ship, which yields high-resolution information about the distribution of phytoplankton across thousands of kilometers. I present new statistical methods designed to estimate time-varying phytoplankton sub-populations from flow cytometry data while simultaneously identifying the specific environmental drivers. We apply this model to data from numerous oceanographic ships deployed in the North Pacific ocean and learn new insights about the relationship between marine microbial populations and environmental factors.
Seminar Date/Time: Thursday, March 9th, 2023 at 4:10pm
Location: MSB 1147 (Colloquium Room)
Refreshments: 3:30pm, MSB Courtyard