Cross-Disciplinary Research Training in Mathematical Biology

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The investigator and his colleagues develop aninterdisciplinary training program that would give graduatestudents substantive training in both mathematics and biology.The goal is to produce students competent in both disciplines,with genuine expertise in applied mathematics and some specificarea of biology: biofluids, ecology and evolutionary biology,neuroscience, or physiology. Training is built on the SpecialInterest Group, which includes faculty members from bothmathematics and biology, students and postdocs, andindustry-based researchers where appropriate. Modern biology is increasingly mathematical andcomputational. Education and training in components of bothdisciplines is needed to prepare people for the 21st centuryworkforce, for leading-edge research, and for teaching. Thispilot project includes innovative aspects in its thematicorganization, flexible arrangement of both common andarea-specific content, interdisciplinary teaming, combination oftheoretical and experimental training, and involvement ofindustrial partners. The combination is promising for fosteringlong-term changes by growing a generation of scientists,mathematicians, and engineers who share language and skills wellenough to take up and solve key problems.