Hong Qian 钱紘
University of Washington
Professor Qian received his B.A. in Astrophysics from Peking University in China, and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Subsequently, he worked as postdoctoral researcher at University of Oregon and Caltech on biophysical chemistry and mathematical biology. Before joining the University of Washington, he was an assistant professor of Biomathematics at UCLA School of Medicine. From 1992-1994, he was a fellow with the Program in Mathematics and Molecular Biology (PMMB), a NSF-funded multi-university consortium. He was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2010.
Professor Qian's main research interest is the mathematical approach to and physical understanding of biological systems, especially in terms of stochastic mathematics and nonequilibrium statistical physics. In recent years, he has been particularly interested in a nonlinear, stochastic, open system approach to cellular dynamics. Similar population dynamic approach can be applied to other complex systems and processes, such as those in ecology, infection epidemics, and economics. He believes his recent work on the statistical thermodynamic laws of general Markov processes can have applications in ecomomic dynamics and theory of values. In his research on cellular biology, his recent interest is in isogenetic variations and possible pre-genetic biochemical origins of oncogenesis.
Personal Website：
https://amath.washington.edu/people/hong-qian
# Time
Monday, 11:00 am -12:00 pm
April 14, 2025
# Venue
Jing Zhai 105
# Online
Zoom Meeting ID: 271 534 5558
Passcode: YMSC
#Abstract
We propose a probabilistic model for a natural law in physics: the Gibbsian statistical thermodynamics. Gibbs’ two separate theories, (i) macroscopic chemical thermodynamics and (ii) statistical mechanics, are unified under the new mathematics based on large deviation theory of iid samples. Extending this model to Markovian samples, an attempt is made to view Lagrange-Hamilton-Jacobi formulation of Newtonian mechanics as a non-random signature via the most probable move into future, the maximal likely move in the past, and the most probable motions connecting past to future, even with time irreversibility. These results suggest a pleasing answer to E. P. Wigner’s “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics” as a classifier for recurrent motions rather than law(s) coming from the above.
