Disease propagation in complex networks: a biased random walk approach
1 October - 12 November 2024
Biography
Dr. Chittaranjan Hens is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Computational Natural Sciences and Bioinformatics (CCNSB) at the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIITH), India. His background and research interests are rooted in network science, nonlinear dynamics, and statistical physics, with a focus on understanding the transmission of diseases and epileptic convulsions within the human brain. Applied mathematics and statistical physics are fields in which Dr. Hens has made significant theoretical and practical contributions. He uses these techniques to investigate emerging behaviors in complex systems.
Following his PhD from the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (CSIR) in Kolkata, Dr. Chittaranjan Hens worked as a PBC postdoctoral researcher at Bar-Ilan University in Israel (2015-2018). After returning India, he joined DST-INSPIRE faculty at the Indian Statistical Institute (2018-2022) in Kolkata. He visited the department of epileptology at Bonn University as part of the DST-INSPIRE faculty program. He has made contributions to the fields of signal propagation in complex networks and extreme multistability in coupled oscillators. His peer-reviewed works in Nature Physics, Physical Review E, Nature Scientific Reports, Royal Society Interface, Physics Reports, and other journals have stimulated further study and garnered positive comments from the intended audiences. Dr. Hens has collaborated with diverse groups across different countries (UK, Poland, Germany, China). Most recently his project on epileptic brain dynamics is selected for DST-DAAD travel grant (2024-2025). He has mentored one PhD and one masters students. Currently he is mentoring two PhD students, four masters students. He is also co-supervising one PhD, and one master student. He has 70 publications with ~2000 citations.
Research Summary
The collaborative project seeks to explore the dynamics of information diffusion across networks, acknowledging that these dynamics are strongly impacted by the network's structure as well as by the particular dynamical mechanisms at play. By representing networks as disordered lattices, Prof. Luca Giuggioli's groundbreaking work on lattice random walks—which can be applied to the analysis of networks—and Dr. Hens's expertise in networks will be added in this project. Through their collaboration, rigorous mathematical tools to predict and quantify this propagation will be developed, incorporating analytical and semi-analytical techniques in addition to computational methods. Their techniques may lead to a deeper understanding of a number of processes, including gene regulation in subcellular environments and the spread of disease in heterogeneous graphs.
Dr. Hens will deliver three talks: one for general audience and two others for MSc Students. Please click on the following links to view the event details:
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9th October |
Open seminar |
Recent advances in network theory enables us to study the interplay between the topological structure and the intrinsic dynamic states of all nodes. The seminar discusses how to track the spatiotemporal patterns of propagation of information, such as the spreading of diseases, the response to a genetic perturbation |
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14th October Introduction to dynamical process in complex networks: Basics (Seminar 1) |
Post Graduate students (Duration: 1 hr) |
This seminar will be helpful to make the audience familiar with networks (graph theory) and nonlinear processes. Initially the history, mathematical background of networks is explained. And then the basic epidemic models (deterministic and stochastic version) are presented. |
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16th October Introduction to dynamical process in complex networks: application to disease spreading (Seminar 2) |
Post Graduate students (Duration: 1 hr) |
This seminar addresses how epidemics spread in complex networks: a mathematical and computational study. The results are validated with MATLAB codes. |
You can contact Dr Hen's host Luca.Giuggioli for more information on talks and presentations.
