Title: Quantitative principles underlying cell-size control in bacteria: from phenomenology to mechanistic origin

Abstract: Biology is so rich and complex, it sometimes makes quantitative scientists wonder what our fundamental role really is in biology. My lab has been working for over a decade to discover and understand basic principles underlying how bacterial cells control their size despite significant cell-to-cell variability. In this talk, I will first introduce the phenomenological principle known as the adder that evolutionarily divergent bacteria (and beyond) follow. I will then explain the mechanistic origin of the adder principle, and discuss how the hierarchy of physiological controls may have emerged during evolution.