We are all familiar with Wigner's Principle - the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the physical sciences. It is in a sharp contrast with what some people call Gelfand's Principle - the unreasonable ineffectiveness of mathematics in the biological sciences. I. M. Gelfand, an eminent mathematician of the 20th century, ran a biology seminar where mathematicians strived to find a common language with biologists.

One of the principle participants of Gelfand's Biology Seminar was Andrei Gudkov, now the Senior Vice President of Basic Science at Roswell Park Cancer Institute at Buffalo, NY (see http://www.roswellpark.edu/andrei-gudkov). In 2008, A. Gudkov was named "one of the top five biologist of the post-Soviet scientific diaspora" by the Russian "Newsweek" (for comparison, a similar list of mathematicians contained Kontsevich, Okounkov and Sinai).

We are organizing a "high risk - high yield" event. Dr. Gudkov will lecture on topics that he deems fundamental in contemporary biology, with a view of engaging a mathematical audience (no preliminary knowledge of biology is assumed). The title is "Biological sense and mechanisms of death".

Our goal is two-fold. First, we would like to expose working mathematicians to a different way of thinking about fundamental problems by biologists and to familiarize them with current biological research. Second, we hope that some of us will find interesting research projects in the "no man's lands" between biology and mathematics.

Guests are welcome. The lectures will take place in the main lecture hall on 11th floor, starting at 10 am on Monday, October 7th. We plan a 90 min lecture before lunch, followed by informal discussions in a free format.