Sara Loo (Johns Hopkins University), Burcu Gürbüz (Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz), Thomas Woolley (Cardiff University), and Olivia Chu (Bryn Mawr College).
-
News - updates from:
- People - Interview with Dr Hao Wang, University of Alberta.
- Editorial - Engaging with the SMB Community
-
Featured Figures -
To see the articles in this issue, click the links at the above items.
Contributing content
Issues of the newsletter are released four times per year in Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. The newsletter serves the SMB community with news and updates, so please share it with your colleagues and contribute content to future issues.
We welcome submissions to expand the content of the newsletter. The next issue will be released in January, so if you would like to contribute, please send an email to the editors by the start of January 2025 to discuss how your content can be included. This could include summaries of relevant conferences that you have attended, suggestions for interviews, professional development opportunities etc. Please note that job advertisements should be sent to the Member Forum rather than to the newsletter.
If you have any suggestions on how to improve the newsletter and would like to become more involved and/or contribute, please contact us at any time. We appreciate and welcome feedback and ideas from the community. The editors can be reached at newsletter@smb.org.
We hope you enjoy this issue of the newsletter!
Sara, Burcu, Thomas and Olivia
Editors, SMB Newsletter
News Section
|
|
|
|
By Olivia Chu
In this issue of the News section, we highlight the updates from the SMB Subgroups and Royal Society Publishing. Read on below.
|
|
Engage in innovative mathematical biology research at the NSF-Simons National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology
|
|
|
|
Random Dynamical Systems, with Applications in Biology workshop held in November 2024
|
|
The NSF-Simons National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology (NITMB) was founded in 2023, with its mission being to enhance integration of research in the mathematics and biology disciplines. The overall vision of the NITMB is to understand the mathematical basis of constraints that drive biological capabilities. Achieving this goal promises to transform biological research and to inspire new mathematical discoveries. Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Simons Foundation, NITMB operates as a working partnership between Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. NITMB is located on the 35th floor of the John Hancock Center at 875 N. Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. It is located halfway between the Northwestern University campus in Evanston and the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park. NITMB has a dedicated auditorium for convening activities, a dining area, temporary offices for visitors, and extensive open collaborative work spaces for research and interaction. The Institute is designed to house most of its research and convening activities, and it is readily accessible to participants from across the U.S. and the world.
Researchers at the Institute generate new mathematical results and uncover the “rules of life” through theoretical studies, data-informed mathematical models, and various computational and statistical tools. The structure of NITMB-supported research allows theorists and experimentalists to collaborate on experimental design, data analysis, and modeling. NITMB also fosters the development of new mathematics that is inspired by biology. In particular, the Institute offers two forms of research support: (i) funding for research projects and (ii) funding to visit and perform research at NITMB. Scientific conferences, workshops, and long programs hosted by NITMB are organized around broad conceptual themes that are common in both mathematics and biology; they also highlight opportunities to develop new mathematics. These events are open to participants from institutions across the world and include researchers in both mathematics and biology.
Stay up to date with the latest information about NITMB by visiting nitmb.org.
|
SMB Subgroups Updates
Population Dynamics, Ecology, and Evolution (PDEE)
The PDEE subgroup successfully launched an online journal club. We are seeking presenters and article suggestions; we are particularly interested in participation from scholars in the global South. To learn more, email subgroup chair Judith Miller at Judith.Miller@georgetown.edu.
Mathematical Epidemiology (MEPI)
The Mathematical Epidemiology (MEPI) subgroup had a wonderful time at the annual meeting in Korea. We held a session on Infectious Disease Modeling Across Time, Space, and Scale. Speakers included Soyoung Park, Edward Hill, Stacey Smith?, Folashade Agusto, Sunhwa Choi, Camelia Rose Walker, and Tin Phan.
We also wish to share that our current officers are Meredith Greer (Chair) and Prashant Kumar Srivastava (Co-Chair), along with Michael Robert (Past Chair).
Cardiovascular Modeling
- Committee membership update: we now have Mitchell Colebank at University of South Carolina joining our committee as Secretary in addition to Michael Watson and Vijay Rajagopal as President and Vice President. We will be growing our committee membership in 2025 to adequately represent our growing member community.
- We have a website which we would love to populate with CVM subgroup member stories and publications, please email one of the committee members to let us know.
- We have also created a LinkedIn page that we encourage our members to join. Get immediate access to your network of colleagues for your next collaboration, next job search or next recruit into your team.
- If you would like to get involved with our community please make sure you register your membership with CVM when you renew membership or become a new member of SMB.
- Look out for an email from us when SMB2025 opens up proposals for minisymposia.
Mathematical Oncology
- Fields Thematic Program in Mathematical Oncology, July - December 2024
Over the past 20 years the mathematical modelling of cancer has developed from a side discipline to centre stage. Many modern treatment developments are accompanied by mathematical and computational modelling. For example, optimal radiation schedules are computed based on tumor control probabilities, glioma treatment is guided by medical image processing, and evolutionary adaptive therapies are guided by mathematical modelling. In fact, all aspects of the seminal “Hallmarks of Cancer” from Hanahan and Weinberg (2000 and 2010) have now been modelled with mathematical and computational models. The well structured and uncompromisingly rigorous methods of mathematical modeling has a lot to offer for future developments in cancer research and treatments. Not only does it guide researchers in the right direction, it also, unceremoniously, tells us when something does not work, and why. In support of research activities in this very active area of applied mathematics, the Thematic Program in Mathematical Oncology has been hosted at the Fields Institute from July to December 2024. The thematic program has featured a large number of activities, including six workshops, two Fields postdocs, several long term visitors, and over 250 short term visitors. It has also hosted three distinguished visitors (N. Komarova, H. Byrne, T. Hillen) and offered a mathematical oncology graduate course. For details and videos of many of the talks, please see: http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/activities/24-25/oncology
- Math Oncology Interviews
Thomas Hillen started an interview series on youtube, where he invites experts in mathematical oncology for a short interview to find out who they are, what career path they had, and what motivates them. These informal conversations are fun to watch and allow younger scientists to meet some of the leaders in the field. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/@MathOncologyInterviews/playlists
- Workshop on Uncertainty Quantification
One of your MathOnco co-chairs is also co-organizing an ICERM workshop on Uncertainty Quantification for Mathematical Biology, where many SMB members will participate. All are welcome to apply: https://icerm.brown.edu/program/topical_workshop/tw-25-uqmb
Cell and Developmental Biology
The Cell and Developmental Biology (CDEV) subgroup elected new officers this fall:
Chair: Keisha Cook (Clemson University, keisha@clemson.edu)
Secretary: Anna Nelson (Duke University, anelson@math.duke.edu)
Committee members:
Royal Society Publishing
|
|
Journal of the Royal Society Interface celebrates its 20th anniversary!
On 22nd November 2004, J. R. Soc. Interface was launched to provide a home for cross-disciplinary science at the boundary of the life and physical sciences. To mark its 20thanniversary, we are looking back on the landscape of interdisciplinary science two decades ago and looking forward to what the future may hold.
As part of our celebrations, you are invited to write a Perspective on where you think this field will be in 20 years’ time, with a £1000 on offer. We also have interviews with our past and present editors, as well as a blog post with our Senior Publishing Editor, and a collection of new reviews and historic research.
|
|
|
|
Tree frog (Litoria caerulea). Credit: iStock.com / jamcgraw.
|
People Section
By Burcu Gürbüz
|
|
|
|
Interview with Dr Hao Wang, University of Alberta, an organizer for next year's SMB Annual Meeting.
|
|
