Orit Peleg

Orit Peleg (born 1983) is an Israeli computer scientist, biophysicist and Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department and the BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder in Boulder, CO. She is also an External Professor of the Santa Fe Institute. She is known for her work on collective behavior of insects and the biophysics of soft living systems, including honeybees and fireflies. Applications of her work range from human communication, smart-material design, and swarm robotics. She has won national and international awards and prizes, including a Sloan Research Fellowship in Physics in 2023, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2022, a Cottrell Scholars Award in 2022 and being named a National Geographic Explorer in 2021.


Orit Peleg
A portrait of Professor Orit Peleg
Born1983 (age 39–40)
NationalityIsraeli
Alma materBar-Ilan University
ETH Zurich
Scientific career
FieldsBiophysics
InstitutionsHarvard University
University of Colorado Boulder
Santa Fe Institute
ThesisCoarse-grained models of competitive interactions in biophysical systems from chains and fibrillar networks to hairy surfaces (2012)
Doctoral advisorMartin Kroger

Viola Vogel

Yitzhak Rabin
Other academic advisorsL. Mahadevan Eugene Shakhnovich
Websitehttp://peleglab.com

Education and academic career

Peleg completed her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Physics and Computer Science at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel in 2007. She received her PhD in 2012 from ETH Zurich, where she studied competitive interactions in biological systems.[1] Her doctoral research considered the physics of biological nanopores. Peleg then moved to Harvard University, where she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and then the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. There she worked on the evolution of protein interactions[2] and the morphology of honeybee swarms.[3]

Research and career

In 2018, Peleg joined the faculty of the University of Colorado Boulder in the Computer Science Department and the BioFrontiers Institute. In 2019 she was appointed to the Santa Fe Institute.[4] Her research considers how living organisms generate and interpret signals for the purpose of communication.

Fireflies

Peleg revealed that fireflies synchronize their flashing and that there is a critical density that must be reached before the fireflies can get in rhythm with one another.[5][6] This work was covered by popular news outlets, including National Geographic, NPR, Smithsonian Magazine, Harper's Magazine, and The New York Times.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]

Honey bee communication

Peleg is interested in the communication of honey bees, which can aid the conservation of pollinating insects. She uncovered how swarms of honey bees communicate through scenting to create scent "maps" so that the swarm can locate the queen bee.[15] Peleg demonstrated that honey bees collaborate in clusters to respond to mechanical forces when the swarm is shaken,[16][17][18][19] and that honey bees collaborate to create air ventilation in congested nest cavities.[20][21] This work was also covered in the popular media, including ABC News, Discover Magazine, and Forbes.[22][23][24]

Awards and honors
  • 2023 Sloan Fellowship in Physics from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.[25]
  • 2022 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation for "Principles of Firefly Rhythmic Synchronization".[26]
  • 2022 Cottrell Scholar Award from Research Corporation for Science Advancement for "The Physics of Firefly Communications: Principles and Predictions".[27]
  • 2021 Junior Scientific Award of the Complex Systems Society “for her contributions to the understanding of collective dynamics”.[28]
  • 2021 National Geographic Explorer Grantee for "High-throughput Automatic Monitoring Tools for Firefly Conservation".[29]
  • 2019 Appointed as External Faculty at Santa Fe Institute[30]
  • 2019 Elected as Member–at–Large at the Executive Committee of the Division of Biological Physics, American Physical Society
  • 2016 Selected for Rising Stars in Physics at MIT

Select publications

References
  1. Peleg, Orit (2012). Coarse-grained models of competitive interactions in biophysical systems from chains and fibrillar networks to hairy surfaces (Doctoral Thesis). Zürich: ETH. doi:10.3929/ethz-a-007339190. hdl:20.500.11850/60238. OCLC 935354441.
  2. Peleg, Orit; Choi, Jeong-Mo; Shakhnovich, Eugene I. (October 2014). "Evolution of Specificity in Protein-Protein Interactions". Biophysical Journal. 107 (7): 1686–1696. Bibcode:2014BpJ...107.1686P. doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2014.08.004. PMC 4190652. PMID 25296322.
  3. Peleg, O.; Peters, J. M.; Salcedo, M. K.; Mahadevan, L. (December 2018). "Collective mechanical adaptation of honeybee swarms". Nature Physics. 14 (12): 1193–1198. Bibcode:2018NatPh..14.1193P. doi:10.1038/s41567-018-0262-1. ISSN 1745-2473. S2CID 1414430.
  4. "Orit Peleg | Santa Fe Institute". www.santafe.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  5. Sarfati, Raphaël; Hayes, Julie C.; Peleg, Orit (2021-07-09). "Self-organization in natural swarms of Photinus carolinus synchronous fireflies". Science Advances. 7 (28): eabg9259. Bibcode:2021SciA....7.9259S. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abg9259. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 8262802. PMID 34233879.
  6. Sarfati, Raphaël; Hayes, Julie C.; Sarfati, Élie; Peleg, Orit (2020-09-30). "Spatio-temporal reconstruction of emergent flash synchronization in firefly swarms via stereoscopic 360-degree cameras". Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 17 (170): 20200179. doi:10.1098/rsif.2020.0179. PMC 7536049. PMID 32961095.
  7. "See fireflies magically light up this national park". National Geographic Travel. 2021-04-22. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
  8. "Firefly Light Shows Don't Just Dazzle. Swarms Can Also Synchronize Their Flashes". NPR.org. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
  9. "These photos are shedding new light on how fireflies interact with the world". NPR.org. Retrieved 2023-09-29.
  10. "How Fireflies' Dramatic Light Show Might Spark Advances in Robot Communication". smithsonianmag.com. Retrieved 2023-09-29.
  11. Gregory, Vanessa. "Bright Flight". Harper's Magazine. Retrieved 2023-09-29.
  12. Imbler, Sabrina (2021-07-07). "How Swarms of Fireflies Sync Their Flashes". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
  13. Yirka, Bob; Phys.org. "Fireflies found to interact locally through an active network of visual connections". phys.org. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
  14. "Outside Science (inside parks): Synchronous Fireflies at Congaree National Park". nps.gov. Retrieved 2023-09-29.
  15. "Honey bees rally to their queen via 'game of telephone'". www.science.org. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
  16. "Podcast: Negative emissions and swarms under strain". Nature. 2018-09-19. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-06768-5. S2CID 240219307.
  17. "Here's how clumps of honeybees may survive blowing in the wind". Science News. 2018-09-17. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
  18. "How honeybee swarms could shape future building design - Technology Org". 2018-09-19. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
  19. Burrows, Leah; Engineering, Harvard John A. Paulson School of; Sciences, Applied. "Shaking the swarm—researchers explore how bees collaborate to stabilize swarm clusters". phys.org. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
  20. "How bees stay cool on hot summer days: Detecting the ventilation strategy of honey bees". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
  21. Burrows, Leah; University, Harvard. "How bees stay cool on hot summer days". phys.org. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
  22. "Smell ya later: Honeybees track their queens with scent maps". ABC News. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
  23. "Honeybees Use Scent Maps to Keep Track of Their Queen". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
  24. McMillan, Fiona. "Swarm Intelligence: How Bees Work Together To Become A Superorganism In High Winds". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
  25. "Peleg Sloan Fellowship".
  26. "Peleg NSF CAREER Award".
  27. "2022 Cottrell Scholars". Research Corporation for Science Advancement. Retrieved 2023-09-29.
  28. "CSS Awards". cssociety.org. Retrieved 2023-09-29.
  29. "Orit Peleg - National Geographic Society". explorer-directory.nationalgeographic.org. Retrieved 2022-07-02.
  30. "Orit Peleg - Santa Fe Institute". santafe.edu. Retrieved 2023-09-29.
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