Beckett Sterner
I am currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. I earned by PhD in the Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science at the University of Chicago.
My research focuses on the question, “When and why is mathematics useful for biology?” Biologists have determined the sequences of billions of nucleotides in thousands of genomes, and they have measured the expression levels of tens of thousands of genes across numerous species. However, their appetite for data is quickly outrunning their ability to give it theoretical significance. The movement to quantify life, exemplified here by genomics and its descendants, is no simple benefit to biology: at minimum, it poses major challenges for the nature and practice of biological theory. One leading solution is the introduction of computer modeling into biological theorizing, but little consensus exists among biologists on how and when computer modeling helps.
My research examines the process and outcomes of mathematization — i.e. the consequences of making math indispensable for scientific research. In my dissertation, I investigated the value of computational biology for predicting and explaining the behaviors of molecular-level cell mechanisms. My postdoctoral research focuses on the impact of mathematics on classification and phylogenetics
Supervisors: William Wimsatt, C. Kenneth Waters, and Robert Richards
My research focuses on the question, “When and why is mathematics useful for biology?” Biologists have determined the sequences of billions of nucleotides in thousands of genomes, and they have measured the expression levels of tens of thousands of genes across numerous species. However, their appetite for data is quickly outrunning their ability to give it theoretical significance. The movement to quantify life, exemplified here by genomics and its descendants, is no simple benefit to biology: at minimum, it poses major challenges for the nature and practice of biological theory. One leading solution is the introduction of computer modeling into biological theorizing, but little consensus exists among biologists on how and when computer modeling helps.
My research examines the process and outcomes of mathematization — i.e. the consequences of making math indispensable for scientific research. In my dissertation, I investigated the value of computational biology for predicting and explaining the behaviors of molecular-level cell mechanisms. My postdoctoral research focuses on the impact of mathematics on classification and phylogenetics
Supervisors: William Wimsatt, C. Kenneth Waters, and Robert Richards
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