Dr. Ahmet Ay

Ahmet Ay, Associate Professor of Biology and Mathematics at Colgate University, has been selected as the R. Gaurth Hansen Alumnus Awardee for 2016. Dr. Ay worked with Dr. David Arnosti (Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology) and Dr. Chichica Chiu (Department of Mathematics) at Michigan State University. He received his Ph.D in Mathematics and Quantitative Biology in 2009 studying the mathematical modeling of gene regulation in early Drosophila melanogaster embryos.

At Colgate University, Dr. Ay has developed an interdisciplinary undergraduate curriculum in systems biology with support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His current research interests lie in applying mathematical modeling and computer programming to understand gene regulatory networks at multiple levels. (1) He develops statistical learning techniques to construct and analyze large-scale gene regulatory networks from genomic datasets. (2) He studies small-scale gene regulatory networks such as zebrafish segmentation clock using mathematical modeling and biological experimentation. (3) He also uses mathematical modeling to analyze the similarities and differences between conserved alternatively designed gene regulatory sub-networks.

Dr. Ay's research has appeared in more than 20 articles in Molecular Systems Biology  (Nature Press), Development, eLife, and other leading journals.