Math 350, Fall 2007
Mathematical Biology
Instructor John E. McCarthy
Class
TuTh 1.00-2.30 in 220,
Cupples II
Office
105 Cupples I
Office Hours M 3:00-4:00, Tu 3:00-4:00, F:
12:00-1:00.
Phone
935-6753
Text
Modeling Differential
Equations in Biology, by C. Taubes
Exams There will be two exams in the course:
1) Midterm
In class, Thursday, October 11th.
2) Final
Final exam, on Wednesday December 19, 1.00-3.00, in Earth&Planetary Science
Bldg, Rm 102.
There will be weekly homework sets during the semester, handed out on Thursday in class and due the following Thursday.
Project:
Each student must write a paper on a mathematical approach to a problem in biology. The paper should include a description of the biological situation, a description of the mathematical model, the predictions of the model, and a comparison of the predictions to observed data.
This paper is due on November 29th. The topic must receive my approval by October 4th.
Prerequisites
Calculus 233 and Differential Equations 217, or permission of instructor.
Content
We will start out discussing the use of differential equations in biological modeling, and this will be the core of the course. We shall cover a couple of other topics, such as statistical regression. I hope to have some guest lectures from real biologists.
Basis for Grading
The project, the midterm and the homework will be 20% of your grade, the final will be 40%.
Homework
Homework is an extremely important part of the course. Whilst talking to
other people about it is not dis-allowed, too often this degenerates into one
person solving the problem, and other people copying them (often justified to
themselves by saying "I provide the ideas, X does the details" - but
the details are the key. If you can't translate the idea into a real proof, you
don't understand the material well enough). So I shall introduce the following
rules:
(a) You can only talk to some-one else about a problem if you have made a genuine
effort to solve it yourself.
(b) You must write up the solutions on your own. Suspiciously similar write-ups
will receive 0 points.
Class
I do expect you to come to class every day, and to participate in class discussions. I also expect you to stay abreast of the material we are covering, and may call on you at any time to answer a question.
Other Reading
Mathematical Biology by J.D. Murray
The geometry of biological time, by A.T. Winfree
An introduction to bioinformatics algorithms, by N.C. Jones and P.A. Pevzner