Undergraduate Biology and Mathematics Training Program

Description

The NSF-funded Group Undergraduate Biology and Mathematics Training Program will provide long-term research experience for undergraduate students majoring in Mathematics and Biology, taking advantage of the unique strong ties between the Departments of Mathematics and Biology at NJIT, and building upon the achievements of the preceding Institutional UBM program. The goal of this Program is to prepare students to pursue graduate studies or industrial scientific research in fields combining Mathematics and Biology, fulfilling the growing need for young researchers skilled in the combined application of experimental and quantitative techniques to tackle challenging new problems in the Life Sciences. This Program will strenghten collaborations between NJIT investigators working within different academic disciplines, leading to new research projects, and potentially resulting in new findings and discoveries.

This Program will train 6 students per year, broken into three groups, with joint mentoring of each 2-student group by a pair of faculty from the Department of Mathematical Sciences (NJIT) and the Federated Department of Biological Sciences (NJIT/Rutgers-Newark). Research projects will cover a diverse set of Mathematical Biology areas, focusing on different topics in Neuroscience, Ecology or Cell Biology. Special emphasis will be made on the development of written and oral communication skills, with students required to make regular presentations at weekly group meetings. Students will write a final report of research results and findings, in a publishable format.

UBM Program Timeline

Fall (sophomore or junior year): Applications are solicited and reviewed. Applicants are interviewed in December, and accepted students meet with their Math or Biology advisors to select appropriate courses for Spring.

Spring (sophomore or junior year): UBM participants enroll in Math 373 (3 credits, Intro to Math Biology), attend the weekly group meeting, Math 401 (1 credit, Undergraduate Research Seminar), and learn about potential summer research projects by rotating through participating labs (typically 3 or 4 rotations)

Summer: Student participants select their research project on the basis of lab rotations in the Spring, and pair up into groups. Each group spends 2 months in an intensive full-time research environment. Pairs of students will be teamed with one faculty member from Biology and one from Mathematics. Weekly group meetings will be held. Students cannot register for summer classes in order that they focus solely on research.

Fall (junior or senior year): Student register for 3 credits of Math 491 or Biol 492 (Indepedent Study/Research) to finalize their team projects. Weekly group meetings continue. In December students submit their final research project, and present their findings at a special session of the NJIT Mathematical Biology Seminar.

Spring (junior or senior year): Students write and submit manuscripts to peer-reviewed publications, and travel to research conferences to present their findings.

Participating Laboratories

Neuroscience	Cell Biology	Ecology
Victor Matveev (PI: Math) Jorge Golowasch (co-PI: Biol) Farzan Nadim (Math/Biol) Amitabha Bose (Math) Robert Miura (Math) Horacio Rotstein (Math) Andrew Hill (Biol)	Camelia Prodan (Biophys) Nihal Altan-Bonnet (Biol) Alexis Rodriguez (Biol) Edward Bonder (Biol) Linda Cummings (Math)	Gareth Russell (co-PI: Biol) Daniel Bunker (Biol) Karina Schäfer (Biol) Evolutionary Biology & Philogenetics Jessica Ware (Biol)

This Program is supported by the NSF grant award DMS-0926232