Mathematics and Biology I: Morphometry, Morphogenesis and Mathematics

Dates: February 23–March 13, 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.

Week 1: Feb 23–27, 2026: Workshop on MMM

Week 2-3: March 2–6 & 9–13, 2026: Collaborations and discussions

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
• Bhart-Anjan Bhullar, Yale
• 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, Princeton
• Sahand Hormoz, Harvard
• Helen James, Smithsonian Institution
• Allon Klein, Harvard Medical School
• Elena Kramer, Harvard University
• Thomas Lecuit, College de France & IBDM
• Daniel Lew, MIT
• M. Lisa Manning, Syracuse
• Noah Mitchell, University of Chicago
• Akankshi Munjal, Duke
• Nipam Patel, MBL Woods Hole
• Olivier Pourquié, Harvard Medical School
• Adrienne Roeder, Cornell University
• Karen Sears, UC Los Angeles
• Mattia Serra, UC Santa Barbara
• Suraj Shankar, University of Michigan
• Anuj Srivastava, Florida State University
• 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