Abstract: In evolving populations, mutant traits can establish colonies through a combination of selection and genetic drift. A common measure of the evolutionary success of such a trait is its fixation probability, which quantifies how likely a mutant is to invade and replace the resident type. In this talk, I will discuss several existing approaches to calculating fixation probabilities, as well as the difficulties that arise in computing them in spatially-heterogeneous populations. This leads naturally to recent work on formal mathematical models of evolving populations with arbitrary population structure. I will conclude with a general result on fixation probabilities within this class of models, which both recovers many known findings and allows for new extensions.
The research of Dr. McAvoy is in Evolutionary Game Theory and Stochastic Processes, with interests in stochastic evolution, learning in populations and mutation-selection dynamics. Dr. McAvoy graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2016 with a PhD in mathematics, then held a postdoctoral position at Harvard University and currently is a Simons Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.
To schedule a time to meet with Dr. McAvoy or join us for a virtual lunch, please fill out the following google document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PZuz-rrC5I5qVc3yCmn47GRhS4iAf2-2sQDZrHiihF0/edit
Presentation Link:
https://illinois.zoom.us/j/82837601654?pwd=SjhFUWVkbnAzSnJVeVFKa0NFdUJEQT09
Meeting ID: 828 3760 1654
Password: 590018
