Workshop: Network modeling - Methods and applications in biology, medicine and sociology

Networks are everywhere, on the Internet, in social settings, in infectious disease, in biological systems. During the last few years the theory of networks has emerged as a discipline in its own right with a well developed theory and with very broad applications in many areas. The aim of this workshop is to present and discuss recent advances in this new and exciting discipline.

-If you are interested in learning more about networks and their applications in biology, medicine and sociology, this workshop is an excellent opportunity to become more familiar with the topic and socialize with other interested researchers in Norway!

-If you are working with network modeling, this is an outstanding opportunity to meet top network modeling researchers and become acquainted with frontline research in this field!

Networks and graphs describe links between units or individuals and is a natural way to describe the organization and structure of systems in many disciplines, including social sciences, biology, genomics, communications, when the relationship between the different entities is of primary interest. 

Modern technologies allow collecting precious data on the nodes and links of networks. Analysis and simulation of networks have become a major endeavor across several scientific disciplines, and statistics plays a central role.

In this workshop, focus will be on statistical methodology and inference, and applications of network modeling in biology, sociology and in relation to transmission of infectious diseases. The workshop features longer presentations and with ample time to interaction and discussion.

Registration

Registration is open, please send an e-mail to Morten Valberg to register.

Deadline for registration is 01.03.2012

Payment

The registration fee is 950 NOK, and covers lunch, beverages and refreshments during the two-day workshop. Payment is due 15th of April. Students without project funding can participate free of charge.

Confirmed speakers

• Albert-Laszlo Barabasi* (University of Notre Dame)
  • "Taming Complexity: Controlling Networks".
• Tom Britton (Stockholm University)
  • "Weighted networks with applications to epidemics".
• Geoffrey Canright (Telenor)
  • "Diffusion on social networks - some modest theory, and a great deal of data".
• Jacques Colinge (Austrian Academy of Science)
  • "Network analysis of how different viruses hijack human host cells: a survey of 69 different viral proteins".
• Birgitte Freiesleben de Blasio (University of Oslo)
  • "Frailty effects in networks: comparison and identification of individual heterogeneity versus preferential attachment in evolving networks".
• Christofer Edling (Lund University)
  • "The personal networks of 19-year old Swedes".
• Krista Gile (University of Massachusetts)
  • "Inference from Partially-Observed Social Network Data".
• Petter Holme (Umeå University)
  • "Temporal network structure of human interaction and its implication for disease dynamics and control".
• David Hunter (Penn State University)
  • "Scalable statistical estimation methods for large, time-varying networks".
• Fredrik Liljeros (Stockholm University)
  • "Scaling in interaction activity and it's potential implication for the spread of information and contagious diseases".
• Kim Sneppen (The Niels Bohr Institute)
  • "Functional networks from phages and bacteria".
• Tatyana Turova (Lund University)
  • "Bootstrap percolation in modelling neural networks".
• Brian Yandell (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
  • "Bayesian causal phenotype network incorporating genetic variation and biological knowledge".

*Awaiting final confirmation.

Organizing committee

• Birgitte Freiesleben de Blasio^*
• Odd O. Aalen^*
• Arnoldo Frigessi^*

*Department of Biostatistics, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo.

See also pdf-leaflet