Physics Alumnus and Physics Faculty Publish a “Five-Generation” Paper

Published: Oct. 13, 2021

Physics alumnus Orrin Shindell, currently an Assistant Professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, recently had a paper accepted in the Journal of Mathematical Biology, “Universality in Kinetic Models of Circadian Rhythms in Arabidopsis thaliana.” The paper assembles several published mathematical models for the molecular control of circadian rhythms in plants, and places these within a common framework for how such periodic oscillations arise and are sustained. The goal has been to understand a prototype for how important living functions - potentially including the development of diseases - arise as transitions in the dynamical behavior of interacting biomolecules.

The project began when Shindell was an undergraduate at CU Denver, advised by Associate Professor Randy Tagg and Clinical Teaching Track Professor Masoud Asadi-Zeydabadi (who in turn had done his PhD work with Tagg). The work reached fulfillment through the extraordinarily diligent computational work of Shindell’s own undergraduate student at Trinity University, Yian Xu. While earning his PhD, Shindell worked in the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics at UT Austin run by Tagg’s postdoctoral mentor, Harry Swinney, who actively commented on the work while it was in preparation. Further insights and early help came from CU Denver’s Mathematics Senior Instructor Mike Kawai and CU Denver Integrative Biology Senior Instructor Lisa Johansen. Five generations of physicists and contributions from scientists in multiple disciplines brought the project to fruition.