Students interested in understanding life processes and in depicting the mathematical details can now enroll in a new undergraduate program to earn a degree in biomathematics.
The new program – officially known as Integrated Undergraduate Training in Mathematics and Life Sciences – aims to attract and train undergraduates in mathematics and life sciences for jobs in mathematics, computational science and life sciences.
The National Science Foundation funds the program, a collaboration between the biology and mathematics departments, although the University hopes to find more funding.
University officials want to create permanent biomathematics courses and turn the program into a concentration for mathematics and biology majors.
“In this [program], we work in groups of both biologists and mathematicians. So we are learning more about the ways different people think,” Laura Paog, a junior in mathematics, said.
Mathematicians get to learn from biological applications, and biology students gain more background in mathematical research, Paog said.
Professors H.T. Banks, Alun Lloyd and Hien Tran, all from the mathematics department, and Professor James Gilliam, from the biology department, have developed two courses:
Differential Equations for the Life Sciences – MA 493.
Mathematical Modeling Techniques for Biological Systems – MA 493 or BIO 495.
“The Differential Equations for the Life Sciences, offered last fall semester and taught by Professor Alun Lloyd, provides students in biological sciences with additional math background from the quantitative side,” Tran said. The departments will offer the course again in the fall.
The courses teach students how to use mathematical techniques to explore and understand models described by differential equations. The courses use real-world examples drawn from many areas of biology, such as ecology, evolution, epidemiology and virology.
They also include topics of math and biology that are interrelated. They model biological processes, such as enzyme-mediated reactions and population growth, using mathematical concepts.
“From the program, I’ve gotten a big perspective on how mathematicians typically approach biology problems, but the biggest thing has been learning how to work with biologists,” John Nardini, a senior in mathematics, said. “I certainly wouldn’t call biologists and mathematicians opposite of each other, as we usually have similar end goals. But our approaches to these end goals are very different as we look for different details to draw conclusions.”
At the end of the courses, faculty members will choose eight students – four from mathematics and four from biology – to work in a summer resource program. Faculty will split the eight into two teams and supervise their research.
Lloyd led the 2011 summer project, Modeling the Epidemiological Impact of Wolbachia-infected Mosquito Releases on Dengue Virus Transmission. Banks supervised the 2012 summer project, Cell Proliferation and Immunology.
