The NSF-Simons National Institute for Theory and Mathematics is excited to formally welcome four new Fellows to the Institute!
NITMB supports NITMB Fellows for two aims: to broaden the scientific workforce in mathematical biology, and to facilitate another avenue of interdisciplinary research.
Read on to learn more about the research interests of each new NITMB Fellow!
Ohad Vilk
Ohad Vilk is a theoretical physicist interested in stochastic processes and nonequilibrium dynamics in biological systems. His research combines mathematical modeling and data to understand biological dynamics across scales, from data-driven models of individual movement to population-level dynamics shaped by movement, branching, and selection. He obtained his PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he worked on statistical-physics models for movement ecology.
Zhijie (Sarah) Feng
Zhijie (Sarah) Feng received her PhD in Physics from Boston University under the supervision of Prof. Pankaj Mehta. She is broadly interested in how interactions and randomness lead to unexpected emergent behavior in complex systems. She aims to develop predictive theories that can be quantitatively tested in real biological systems. During her PhD, she applied ideas from statistical physics to study ecological communities, focusing on invasions, extinctions, community feedback, and eco-evolutionary dynamics, often drawing inspiration from microbial ecosystems.
Olivia Ghosh
Olivia is broadly interested in how biological systems adapt, evolve, and interact. Combining theoretical modeling with experimental approaches and inference from data, she develops predictive models of ecological and evolutionary dynamics. Her work asks how complex systems of interacting populations give rise to seemingly simple functional outputs. She is also interested in how these systems change over time, and how they respond to perturbation. Olivia received her PhD in physics from Stanford, where she worked with Dmitri Petrov and Ben Good on uncovering emergent structure in fitness landscapes, both for natural populations and adaptive mutants.
Yufei Wu
(Joining NITMB in February)
Yufei is a theoretical biophysicist interested in transport processes in biological systems across scales. He earned his PhD from Johns Hopkins University under the supervision of Prof. Sean Sun, where he studied cell–fluid interactions in cell growth and motility. He later conducted postdoctoral research at Duke University with Prof. Michel Bagnat, working on physical models of zebrafish development to understand how fluid–tissue interactions shape long-term development and short-term responses to perturbations. At NITMB, he plans to develop a generalized, fluid-centric theoretical framework for multicellular systems, with a focus on understanding their spatiotemporal dynamics through the lens of fluid–structure interactions. In his free time, he enjoys working out and playing basketball.
Interested in meeting the new NITMB Fellows and learning more about their work? Join us for the NITMB-SkAI Open House on Friday, October 30th, where some of the new Fellows will be giving lightning talks. Learn more and register here.
