= Dmitri Volfson
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<Dmitri Volfson> has studied how the growth and physical interactions of <cells> produce collective organization. He is a co-first author of a 2008 study connecting expansion of dense <bacterial colonies> with orientational alignment of rod-shaped <Escherichia coli>.<Biomechanical ordering of dense cell populations by Dmitri Volfson and others>[Title page, Abstract and equal-contribution note]{ref}
The experiment followed <cells> growing in a <microfluidics>-based <chemostat>. As the population expanded under confinement, its spatial order changed. A continuum <mathematical model> and simulations of individual interacting <cells> helped relate the observed alignment to growth, division and mechanical contact.<Biomechanical ordering of dense cell populations by Dmitri Volfson and others>[Abstract; Figures1,3–4: observations, model and simulations]{ref}
The scientific contribution is a connection between individual growth and a measurable population pattern. A useful original interpretation example is a collection of rods pointing equally in opposite directions along one line: their arrows can cancel in a vector average even though their long axes are aligned. A measure of rod orientation must distinguish this alignment from an isotropic arrangement.
The paper therefore treats a <bacterial colony> as a physical population whose organization can be compared with a model, as well as a collection of individually functioning <cells>. Its author-contribution statement credits Volfson with research, analysis and writing.<Biomechanical ordering of dense cell populations by Dmitri Volfson and others>[Author contributions]{ref}
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