Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Research Program for Undergraduates

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The focus of this project is to provide a first-rate research experience to students who otherwise are extremely unlikely to get get it at their home institutions or elsewhere. The sequential research experiences focus on the applications of mathematics to the biological sciences. The Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute (MTBI) scientific undergraduate program is carried out primarily through consecutive summer research experiences that have been specifically designed to train, mentor, encourage and support Chicano, Latino, Native American and African American who have the potential to pursue careers in applied mathematics or in scientific field where serious quantitative training is fundamental. MTBI's main goal of increasing the pool of underrepresented minorities getting advanced degrees in quantitative fields is best achieved through the selection of participants who come from non-selective universities. The effectiveness of this NSF funded project is being measured by the number of students who enroll in graduate school, the number who get advanced degrees and the ability of some MTBI alumni to gain access to selective graduate programs in these fields. MTBI promotes its goals and objectives through its intensive multiple-summer research training program, GRE preparation program and long-term mentorship and support programs for its alumni. Students receive four weeks of intensive training in mathematical and computational techniques before developing their own research project (10 technical reports per year have been generated, on the average, since 1996). MTBI summer research experiences opens the doors for underrepresented minorities in fields of genomics, theoretical and computational biology, bio-statistics, applied mathematics and many others. The success of the consecutive summer research experiences is based on various factors that include "unlimited" student access to faculty and support personnel (12 to 16 hours a day) and a collaborative learning environment that enhances and nurtures the learning experiences of all participants. Explicit summer outcomes include: the completion a formal research paper (25-40 pages), a public oral presentation and the preparation of a poster. The typical activities of most MTBI alumni include the presentation of their MTBI work in poster sessions at two national conferences: the SACNAS annual meeting and the joint AMS/MAA winter meeting.