Mathematics and Biology I: Morphometry, Morphogenesis and Mathematics

Dates: February 23–March 11, 2026

Location: Harvard CMSA, Room G10, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge MA

Mathematics, Morphometry and Morphogenesis is a 3-week program at the Harvard CMSA, which will bring together researchers from a few different communities with a common aim—to understand shape and its development and evolution in living matter.

The aim is to bring together those interested in evolutionary and developmental biology, soft and active matter physics, and differential, discrete and computational geometry and topology, especially with a statistical bent. Although each of these fields has developed powerful tools and deep insights into form, function, and dynamics, opportunities for them to meet and interact are rare. This workshop aims to foster dialogue and discovery across these disciplinary boundaries—where paleontologists, developmental biologists, physicists, computer scientists and mathematicians can exchange ideas, identify shared challenges, and spark new collaborations. We envision this as a chance not only to showcase exciting advances within each domain, but also to chart new directions together at the intersection of evolution, development, and geometry.

The first week will have a few tutorials on developmental and evolutionary aspects of morphology, computational geometry, statistics and dynamical systems, along with a workshop-style meeting with research talks, setting the stage for longer stays and new collaborations over the following weeks.

Please register if you’d like to attend the talks.

Please note that this is an in-person event.

Register Online

Week 1: Feb 23–27, 2026: Teaching lectures and research seminars

The teaching lectures span a broad range of topics, including statistical shape and morphometric analysis, dynamical systems, differential geometry, and current themes in morphogenesis, developmental biology, and evolutionary developmental biology in Week 1.

Week 2-3: March 2–5 & 10–11, 2026: Research seminars and discussion

Weeks 2 and 3 will cover development, regeneration, and evolution from quantitative, morphometric, and mathematical perspectives.

Topics include:

🧬 Organoids & Tissue-Engineered Models

🔬 Computational Imaging & Geometry

⚙️ Biophysics, Mechanics & Theory

🌱 Developmental Biology & Evo-Devo

Speakers:

• Salem al-Mosleh, University of Maryland Eastern Shore
• Vanessa Barone, Stanford University
• Yohannes Bellaiche, Institut Curie
• Alain Chedotal, Institut de la Vision
• Gary P.T. Choi, Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Stefano Di Talia, Duke University
• Paul Francois, McGill University
• Jianping Fu, University of Michigan
• Thomas Gregor, Pasteur Institute & Princeton
• Sahand Hormoz, Harvard
• Helen James, Smithsonian Institution
• Purnati Khuntia, Harvard
• Allon Klein, Harvard Medical School
• Elena Kramer, Harvard University
• Thomas Lecuit, College de France & IBDM
• Daniel Lew, MIT
• L. Mahadevan, Harvard
• M. Lisa Manning, Syracuse
• Adam Martin, MIT
• Sean Megason, Harvard
• Noah Mitchell, University of Chicago
• Akankshi Munjal, Duke
• Nipam Patel, MBL Woods Hole
• Olivier Pourquié, Harvard Medical School
• Adrienne Roeder, Cornell University
• Mattia Serra, UC San Diego
• Suraj Shankar, University of Michigan
• Anuj Srivastava, Johns Hopkins
• Sebastian Streichan, UC Santa Barbara
• Berta Verd, University of Oxford

Organizers:

• Salem al-Mosleh, University of Maryland Eastern Shore
• Vanessa Barone, Stanford
• L. Mahadevan, Harvard
• Akankshi Munjal, Duke
• Olivier Pourquie, Harvard

Week 1: Feb 23–27, 2026 – Workshop

Monday, 2/23/26

• 9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast
  
• 9:30–10:30 am: Tutorial: Anuj Srivastava (Johns Hopkins) — Advances in Statistical Shape Analysis of Biological Structures
  
• 10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break
  
• 11:00 am–12:00 pm: Tutorial: Anuj Srivastava (Johns Hopkins) — Advances in Statistical Shape Analysis of Biological Structures
  
• 12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch: CMSA Common Room, catered
  
• 1:30–2:15 pm: Research Talk: Noah Mitchell (University of Chicago) — Mechanical canalization of 3D chiral morphogenesis

Tuesday, 2/24/26

• 9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast
  
• 9:30–10:30 am: Tutorial: Mattia Serra (UCSD) —Tissue Flows, Morphogen Transport and Positional Information: A Dynamical Systems Framework 
  
• 10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break
  
• 11:00 am–12:00 pm: Tutorial: Mattia Serra (UCSD) — Tissue Flows, Morphogen Transport and Positional Information: A Dynamical Systems Framework 
  
• 12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch Break
  
• 1:30–2:15 pm: Research Talk: Paul Francois (McGill) — Waddington Landscapes in the Age of Machine Learning

Wednesday, 2/25/26

• 9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast
  
• 9:30–10:30 am: Tutorial: Olivier Pourquie (Harvard) — Segmentation and body axis
  
• 10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break
  
• 11:00 am–12:00 pm: Tutorial: Akankshi Munjal (Duke) — Principles of Tissue Morphogenesis
  
• 12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch: CMSA Common Room, catered
  
• 1:30–2:15 pm: Research Talk: Allon Klein (Harvard) — Stochastic Cell State Transitions
• 2:15–3:00 pm: Research Talk: Salem Al-Mosleh (University of Maryland) — Linking Geometry, Evolution, & Development of Bird Beaks

Thursday, 2/26/26

• In-person discussions

Friday, 2/27/26

• 9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast
  
• 9:30–10:30 am: Tutorial: Vanessa Barone (Stanford)
  
• 10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break
  
• 11:00 am–12:00 pm: Tutorial: Vanessa Barone (Stanford)
  
• 12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch Break
  
• 1:30–2:15 pm: Research Talk: Alain Chedotal (Institut de la Vision) — Tridimensional analysis of human development
  
• 2:15–3:00 pm: Research Talk: Jianping Fu (University of Michigan) — Bioengineering Human Embryo and Organ Models
  

Week 2: March 2–5, 2026

Monday, 3/2/26

• 9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast
  
• 9:30–10:30 am: Research Talk: Thomas Lecuit (Collège de France) —Encoding neuronal shape in the stochastic dynamics of branching processes
  
• 10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break
  
• 11:00 am–12:00 pm: Research Talk: Danny Lew (MIT) — Tuning the Cell Polarity Circuit: location and number of polarity sites
• 12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch: CMSA Common Room, catered
  
• 1:30–2:15 pm: Research Talk: Suraj Shankar (University of Michigan)
• 2:15–2:50 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Wenhui Tang (Harvard) — Wetting dynamics and mechanics in human vertebrate somite formation
• 2:50–3:05 pm: Tea Break
• 3:05–3:35 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Ludwig Hoffmann (Harvard) — Shape deformations through mechanochemical feedback
• 4:30–5:30 pm: CMSA Colloquium: L Mahadevan (Harvard) — Inverse problems in soft and active matter

Tuesday, 3/3/26

• 9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast
  
• 9:30–10:30 am: Research Talk: Adrienne Roeder (Cornell) — Mechanisms generating robustness in flower morphogenesis
  
• 10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break
  
• 11:00 am–12:00 pm: Research Talk: Gary Choi (Chinese University of Hong Kong) — Quantifying shape variation using quasi-conformal geometry
  
• 12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch Break
  
• 1:30–2:15 pm: Research Talk: Akankshi Munjal (Duke)
  
• 2:15–2:50 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Sean McGeary (Harvard) — Uncovering principles of tissue organization with massively parallel cell-interaction assays
• 2:50–3:05 pm: Tea Break
• 3:05–3:35 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Oliver Inge (Harvard) —Combinatorial BMP4 and activin direct the choice between alternate routes to endoderm in a stem cell model of human gastrulation
• 3:40–4:10 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Mehrana Raeisian Nejad (Harvard) — Stress-shape misalignment in confluent cell layers

Wednesday, 3/4/26

• 9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast
  
• 9:30–10:15 am: Research Talk: Nipam Patel (Marine Biology Lab, Woods Hole) — Cellular Morphogenesis at the Nanoscale: Structural color in butterflies
  
• 10:15–11:00 am: Tea Break
  
• 11:00 am–12:00 pm: Research Talk: M. Lisa Manning (Syracuse) — Sparse mesenchymal cell networks as a fluid under tension (and possibly as tunable matter)
  
• 12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch Break: CMSA Common Room, catered
  
• 1:30–2:30 pm: Research Talk: Research Talk: Stefano Di Talia (Duke)
  
• 2:30–3:00 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Suhrid Ghosh (Harvard) — One Cell After Another: Mechanical Counting in Reproductive Evolution
  
• 3:00–3:15 pm: Tea Break
• 3:15–4:05 pm: Research Talk: Sean Megason (Harvard)
• 4:10–4:40 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Alexandru Bacanu (Harvard) — Forcing tissues into shape: mechanical development in the early human brain

Thursday, 3/5/26

• 9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast
  
• 9:30–10:30 am: Research Talk: Sebastian Streichen (UCSB)
  
• 10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break
  
• 11:00 am–12:00 pm: Research Talk: Berta Verd (University of Oxford)
  
• 12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch Break
  
• 1:30–2:15 pm: Research Talk: Elena Kramer (Harvard) — Life in a box: Generating developmental complexity while bound by cell walls
  
• 2:20–2:50 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Beatrice Steinert (Brown) — Grids and Folds: Morphogenetic Mechanisms of Body Plan Organization
  
• 2:50–3:05 pm: Tea Break
• 3:05–3:35 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Rikki Garner (Harvard)
• 3:40–4:10 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Chaitra Prabhakara (Harvard) — One Morphogen, Diverse Patterns: Unraveling Muscle Formation Across the Embryonic Gut Axis

Week 3: March 10–11, 2026

Tuesday, 3/10/26

• 9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast
  
• 9:30–10:30 am: Research talk: Adam Martin (MIT) — Getting in shape: geometry, mechanics, and signaling in living epithelia
  
• 10:30–11:00 am: Tea break
  
• 11:00 am–12:00 pm: Research talk
  
• 12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch Break
  
• 1:30–2:15 pm: Research talk: Yohannes Bellaiche (Institut Curie) — How do cells and tissues sense their size to tailor their dynamics during development?
  
• 2:15–3:00 pm: Research talk: Sahand Hormoz (Harvard)

Wednesday, 3/11/26

• 9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast
  
• 9:30–10:30 am: Research talk: Thomas Gregor (Pasteur Institute & Princeton) — From Fluctuations to Form: Empirical Laws and Scaling Principles in Development
  
• 10:30–11:00 am: Tea break
  
• 11:00 am–12:00 pm: Research talk: Cassandra Extavour (Harvard)
  
• 12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch: CMSA Common Room, catered
  
• 1:30–2:15 pm: Research talk: Purnati Khuntia (Harvard)
• 2:15–3:00 pm: Research talk: Mansi Srivastava (Harvard)