Speaker: Thomas B. KornbergVenue: Report Hall 205, Comprehensive Building of Medical College, Zijingang CampusAbstract: Development creates a vast array of forms and patterns with elegant economy, using a small vocabulary of signaling proteins (BMPs, FGFS EGFs, Wnts, and Hhs) in similar ways to pattern many different tissues. Specialized filopodia called cytonemes transport these signaling proteins between cells, mediating cell-cell exchanges at contacts that are functionally similar to neuronal synapses. The roles and physical attributes of cytonemes have fascinating implications for the way sianaling proteins disperse across tissues to elicit specific responses in both normal development and disease contexts.

Speaker: LIU HuimeiVenue: Room 219/221, ZIBS Building, Haining Campus

Speaker: XU YongjiaVenue: LTN-A 301, Haining CampusAbstract: Intelligent desian and structural health monitoring of civil engineering structures are critical research fields atpresent. This presentation reports the recent progress in solving problems such as low utlization efticiency of existing design data and unstable quality in structural design by introducing generative intelligent design methods.Leveraging advanced generative Al algorithms the proposed methodologies extract key features and patterns from existing design data to acquire engineering structural design capabilities, fulfilling new design tasks efficiently while maintaining stable design quality. Additionallv, the civil enaineering tield has beaun transitioning from aconstruction-tocusedapproach toward emphasizino balanced construction and maintenance.To ensure the satety and functionality of existing structures, structural health monitoring has increasinaly gained importance. This presentation, therefore, introduces a Bidirectional Granhics-Based Diaital Twin (Bi-GBDT) structural health monitorna tramework, Supported by various technologies such as digtal twin, virtual environments, deep learning, and finite element analyss, the Bi-GBDT tramework integrates the data acquisition, external damage identification, and intrinsic damage evaluation to achieve accurate and efficient structural condition assessments.

Speaker: Karl KraatzVenue: 311, Building 4, Chenjun Court, Zijingang CampusAbstract: This talk explores the Metaphysics of Artificial Intelligence, focusing on the foundational assumptions underpinning generative AI technologies. I argue that we are experiencing a paradigm shift—from scientism to dataism and from a metaphysics of matter to a metaphysics of information. Philosophers play a crucial role in drawing attention to these transformations and, where necessary, cautioning about their implications. By building on phenomenology and hermeneutics, and engaging with thinkers such as Husserl, Heidegger, Arendt, Derrida, and Baudrillard, I contend that AI’s existential risks extend beyond mere catastrophic potential to a profound reshaping of human thought. As Hubert Dreyfus once remarked: The real danger of computers is not that they will become more like us, but the reverse: that we will become more like computers. This talk aims to make these insights accessible to non-philosophers, using examples from recent advancements in AI, such as DeepSeek’s reasoning capabilities and breakthroughs at the intersection of biology and artificial intelligence.

Speaker: LI XiangdongVenue: 2-312 Haina Court, Zijingang CampusAbstract: In my previous work and my joint work with Songzi Li, we proved the W-entropy formula for the heat equation of the Witten Laplacian on Riemannian manifolds and the  W-entropy formula for the Wasseestein geodesic flow on Riemannian manifolds. We introduced the Langevin deformation of flows, which is a natural interpolation between the gradient flow of the Boltzmann entropy and the Wasserstein  geodesic flow and is closely related to the compressible Euler equation with damping on manifolds. We proved the existence and uniqueness of the compressible Euler equation with damping on manifolds, the W-entropy formula for the Langevin deformation of flows and its convergence when the viscosity coefficient tends to zero and to infinity respectively. In recent works with Songzi Li, Rong Lei and Yuzhao Wang, we further extend our results to the  compressible $L^p$-Euler equation with damping and the $L^p$-Langevin deformation of flows on over Riemannian  manifolds. Our results are new even for the one dimensional Euler equations with dampings. I will give a survey on these works.

Speaker: Sir Michael BerryVenue: Lecture Hall 201, Faculty of Science, Western Campus, Zijingang CampusAbstract: Connections between physics and technological invention and aspects of human life that seem far from science are both unexpected and unexpectedly common. And rather than flowing one way - from physics to gadgets - the connections form an intricate web, linking all aspects of human culture, in ways that frustrate our convenient compartmentalisations and interventions aimed at promoting technology transfer. This lecture will discuss this theme not abstractly but with examples, ranging from music to the colour of gold, and explain how quantum technology helps me do quantum physics.

Speaker: XIONG WeipingVenue: Multifunctional Hall, Haining Campusy, Practice and Case Studies was selected as a key planning textbook for national higher education institutions.

Speaker: Professor Lasley StarkVenue: Seminar, 2A-203, ZJE Building, Haining CampusAbstract: Lesley Stark is Chair of Nucleolar signalling and Cancer Prevention at the University of Edinburgh Institute of Genetics and Cancer. She is internationally renowned for her work on aspirin prevention of colon cancer and the links she has established between cancer prevention, the nucleolus and NF-kB signalling. Her lab established that aspirin causes degradation of a poll complex component, TIF-IA, which has profound affects on nucleolar structure in colon cancer cells and causes cell death through the NF-kB pathway. Identification of this novel mechanism of action has allowed her lab to develop a specific phenotypic drug screen which they are now using to identify agents that mimic the effects of aspirin on colon cancer cells. The interests of the lab in the link between the nucleolus and inflammation has now extended to senescence and aging. In a recent seminal study, they established that TIF-IA accumulation is key for the nucleolar phenotype observed in senescence and for the NF-kB-driven senescence associated secretory phenotype. They predict that this pathway contributes to colon cancer risk with age, which is an area of active investigation.

Speaker: Sir Peter Baron PiotVenue: Conference Room 205, 2nd Floor, Medical Comprehensive Building, Zijingang CampusAbstract: This lecture, with the theme of From Ebola to AIDS: My Research Journey on Epidemics and Viruses, is hosted by the Chan Chun Ha College of Integrated Health, Zhejiang University. It invites Sir Peter Baron Piot, who is an academician of the national medical academies of Belgium, the United States, the United Kingdom and France, an academician of the German Academy of Sciences, a Global Health Professor and former Dean of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and a visiting professor at the University of Leuven in Belgium and the National University of Singapore, to be the keynote speaker.The lecture will be held from 14:00 to 15:30 on April 3, 2025, in Conference Room 205, 2nd Floor, Medical Comprehensive Building, Zijingang Campus. In this lecture, Sir Peter Piot will share his global health journey spanning half a century. During his speech, he will look back on his half-century of experience, envision a new landscape of global health, and explain the important role that China plays in it.