Bard Ermentrout is a mathematical biologist who received his PhD from University of Chicago and has been on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh since 1982. He applies the techniques of nonlinear dynamics to problems in biology. His research has focused mainly on neuroscience but has also worked on problems in immunology, cardiac physiology, pattern formation, and self-organization of organisms. He will collaborate with the experimental investigators to develop mechanistic models for olfactory behavior.