physics

Ilya Nemenman

Ilya Nemenman is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ilya Nemenman rather than just read about it. In short: Ilya Mark Nemenman (born January 8, 1975, in Minsk, Belarus) is a theoretical physicist at Emory University, where he is a Winship Distinguished Research Professor of Physics and Biology. He is known for his studies of information processing in biological systems and for developing coarse-grained models of these systems.

Key takeaways

Ilya Nemenman belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ilya Nemenman to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ilya Nemenman from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ilya Mark Nemenman (born January 8, 1975, in Minsk, Belarus) is a theoretical physicist at Emory University, where he is a Winship Distinguished Research Professor of Physics and Biology. He is known for his studies of information processing in biological systems and for developing coarse-grained models of these systems. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society for "his contributions to theoretical biological physics, especially information processing in a variety of living systems, and for the development of coarse-grained modeling methods of such systems". He is a Simons Investigator and James S. McDonnell Foundation Complex Systems Scholar. He also served in the Chair Line of the Division of Biological Physics of the American Physical Society, from 2013 to 2018. Nemenman also was a founder of the q-bio conference, and is a general member of the Aspen Center for Physics.

Life Ilya Nemenman is the son of Mark Nemenman, a Soviet computer scientist. He studied physics at the Belarusian State University before moving to the US to complete his BS in physics and math at Santa Clara University. He studied for his master's degree in physics at San Francisco State University. He studied for his PhD under Bill Bialek at Princeton University, and graduated in 2000. He then completed postdoctoral research at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Columbia University before starting work at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Finally, in 2009, he moved to join the faculty at Emory University. He has 3 children.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ilya Nemenman

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ilya Nemenman claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ilya Nemenman before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ilya Nemenman ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ilya Nemenman

In research: Ilya Nemenman appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ilya Nemenman in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ilya Nemenman is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1975 births, 20th-century Belarusian Jews, 21st-century American physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ilya Nemenman outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ilya Nemenman in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ilya Nemenman means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ilya Nemenman out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ilya Nemenman in simple terms?

Why does Ilya Nemenman matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ilya Nemenman?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ilya Nemenman.