Rick Durrett, Professor and James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	105 Physics
Office Phone:	(919) 660-6970
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://www.math.duke.edu/~rtd

Teaching (Fall 2013):

• MATH 230.01, PROBABILITY Synopsis

  Physics 119, TuTh 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as STA 230.01)

• MATH 541.01, APPLIED STOCHASTIC PROC Synopsis

  Physics 235, TuTh 01:25 PM-02:40 PM

  (also cross-listed as STA 621.01)

Education:

PhD	Stanford University	1976
MS	Emory University	1973
BS	Emory University	1972

Specialties:

Probability

Research Interests:

Probability problems that arise from genetics and ecology, especially stochastic spatial models and cancer models. Random graphs and processes that take place on them.

Curriculum Vitae

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

• Chris Varghese  
• Junchi Li  
• Yuan Zhang  
• Masha Bessonov  

Postdocs Mentored

• David Herzog (2011-2014)  
• Andreas Aristotelous (2011-2013)  
• Marc Ryser (Jan 2012-June 2014)  
• David Sivakoff (2010-2012)  
• John Mayberry (2008 - 2010)  
• Soumik Pal (2006 - 2008)  
• Lea Popovic (2005 - 2007)  
• Paul Jung (2003 - 2007)  
• Iljana Zahle (2002 - 2003)  
• Jason Schweinsberg (2001 - 2004)  
• Vlada Limic (2000 - 2003)  

Undergraduate Research Supervised

• Kaveh Danesh (2011-2012)
  In a collaboration with Evan Myers and Laura Havrilesky in the Duke Medical school, we worked on predicting the window of opportunity for ovarian cancer screening, resulting in a paper in J. Theor. Biol. 
• Yifei Chen (Summer 2011)
  Participant in math bio RTG. His simulations were useful in improving a reuslt in my paper on population genetics of exponentially growing populations. 
• Aashiq Dheeraj (2012-2013)
  Math Bio RTG participant. Studied spatial versions of evolutionary game models in cancer. 
• Conrad de Peuter (Spring 2013)
  Using Markov renewal processes to model basketball games. 
• Willie Zheng (Spring 2013)  

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. K. Danesh, R. Durrett, L. Havrilesky, and E. Myers, A branching process model of ovarian cancer, J. Theor. Biol. (Accepted, 2012)
2. R. Durrett, Phase transition in a meta-population version of Schelling's model (Submitted, 2012)
3. R. Durrett, J. Foo, and K. Leder, Spatial Moran Models II. Tumor growth and progression (Submitted, 2012)
4. R. Durrett and S. Moseley, Spatial Moran Models. I. Tunneling in the Neutral Case (Submitted, 2012)
5. R. Durrett, J.P. Gleeson, A.L. Lloyd, P.J. Mucha, Feng Shi, D. Sivakoff, J.E.S. Socoloar, and C. Varghese, Graph fission in an evolving voter model, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, vol. 109 (2012), pp. 3682-3687
6. J.T. Cox, R. Durrett, E. Perkins, Voter model perturbations and reaction diffusion equations, Asterique (Accepted, 2011) [math.PR/1103.1676]
7. Durrett, Rick and Mayberry, John, Traveling waves of selective sweeps, The Annals of Applied Probability, vol. 21 no. 2 (2011), pp. 699--744, ISSN 1050-5164 [MR2807971]
8. Chatterjee, Shirshendu and Durrett, Rick, Persistence of activity in threshold contact processes, an ``annealed approximation'' of random {B}oolean networks, Random Structures \& Algorithms, vol. 39 no. 2 (2009), pp. 228--246, ISSN 1042-9832 [MR2850270]
9. R. Durrett, J. Foo, K. Leder, J. Mayberry, and F. Michor, Intratumor heterogeneity in evolutionary models of tumor progression, Genetics, vol. 188 (2011), pp. 461-477
10. R. Durrett and Shirshendu Chatterjee, Persistence of activity in random Boolean networks, Random Structures and Algorithms, vol. 39 (2011), pp. 228-246
11. R. Durrett and Stephen Moseley, Evolution of resistance and progression to disease during clonal expansion of cancer, Theor. Pop. Biol., vol. 77 (2010), pp. 42-48
12. R. Durrett, J. Foo, K. Leder, J. Mayberry, and F. Michor, Evolutionary dynamics of tumor progression with random fitness values, Theor. Pop. Biol., vol. 78 (2010), pp. 54-66 [math.PR/1003.1927]
13. R. Durrett and Shirshendu Chatterjee, Asymptotic behavior of Aldous' gossip process, Annals of Applied Probability, vol. 21 (2010), pp. 2447-2482 [math.PR/1005.1608]
14. Rick Durrett, Deena Schmidt, and Jason Schweinsberg, A waiting time problem arising from the study of multi-stage carcinogenesis, The Annals of Applied Probability, vol. 19 (2009), pp. 676--718, ISSN 1050-5164 [MR2521885 (2010f:60243)]
15. R. Durrett, Special invited paper: Coexistence in stochastic spatial models, The Annals of Applied Probability, vol. 19 (2009), pp. 477--496, ISSN 1050-5164 [MR2521876 (2010g:60213)]
16. R. Durrett and Lea Popovic, Degenerate diffusions arising from gene duplication models, Ann. Appl. Probab., vol. 19 (2009), pp. 15-48 [MR2521876 (2010g:60213)]
17. R. Durrett and Deena Schmidt, Waiting for two mutations with applications to regulatory sequence evolution and the limits of Darwinian evolution, Genetics, vol. 180 (2008), pp. 1510-1509

Selected Invited Lectures

1. IMS Wald Lectures, 2008    
2. Medallion Lecture SPA Paris, 2006    
3. St Flour Probability Summer School, 1993    
4. International Congress of Math, 1990, Kyoto    

Recent Grant Support

• Mathematical Models of Cancer Initiation Progression and Reistance to Therapy, National Institutes of Health, 7R01GM096190-02, 2010/07-2014/06.      
• Workshop for Women in Probability - Participant Support, National Science Foundation, 2012/07-2013/07.      
• Ecology, Evolution, and Random Graphs, National Science Foundation, DMS-1057675, 2010/09-2013/07.      

Conferences Organized

• Southeastern Probability Conference, member of organizing committee, 2011, 2012, 2013  
• MBI year on Stochastics in Biological Systems, Member of organizing committee, 2011-12 academic year  
• Semester on Biodiversity and Evolution, member of organizing committee, July - December 2013  
• Evolutionary Biology and the Theory of Computing, member of the organizing committee, Janury 13 - May 16, 2014  
• Workshop for Women in Probability, October 14-16, 2012