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Applied Mathematics Colloquium

Friday, February 29, 11:30 am
Cullimore Lecture Hall II
New Jersey Institute of Technology

Mathematics as a Mechanism for Cohesion in Biology

Louis J. Gross

Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Mathematics

University of Tennessee

Knoxville, TN

Abstract

Biology is a tremendously diverse field covering systems operating at vastly different scales, with differing levels of interaction between these. Perhaps one of the greatest challenges in biology is that of representativeness: how representative are observations and methods we develop for one biological system applicable to other systems, at different locations, in different organisms, or at different levels of organization in the hierarchy of biology? This inherently theoretical question underpins much of the past effort in mathematical biology, driven typically by the desire to develop the general principles by which biological systems are organized and operate. Yet at the same time there are demands for answers to quite specific questions to better manage natural systems, to enhance human health, and to plan for the future impacts of human actions. Some argue that we have not been tremendously successful to date in moving from theory to practice. I will give a variety of examples of projects in mathematical ecology that lie at this interface between theory and practice, providing some indication of the utility of quantitative methods to elucidate general patterns of natural systems and how these have proven useful in application.