Modeling and Differential Equations in Biology PDF

PREFACE

This volume contains the invited lectures and contributed papers presented at the regional conference on Modeling and Differential Equations in Biology, supported by the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences and the National Science Foundation, which was held at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois from June 5 to 9, 1978. Professor H. T. Banks of Brown University was the Principal Lecturer. His lecture notes will appear in a separate volume published for the Conference Board.

Invited lectures were given by Professors T. Hallam, H. Thames, Jr., and P. Waltman. Their lectures, together with substantial supporting material, are contained in this volume. During the conference, Professor Steve Merrill was invited to contribute an expository paper on immune response. That is the only paper included here which was not presented at the conference.

Professors N. Alikakos, G. Becus, G. Butler, W. Fair, B. Goh, A. Hastings, and S. Merrill contributed one or more papers during the week and these are all included (some have co-authors).

Each of the contributed papers was subjected to a refereeing process similar to that for a journal article.

The conference itself was an exceptionally exciting experience. Most of the participants were mathematicians specializing in differential equations. The lectures of Banks and the other speakers opened up broad areas of application to the participants. Each author was asked to provide substantial expository material in his article. It is our hope that this volume will do much to stimulate research in the direction of applications of differential equations to biology.

I wish to thank each of the speakers, the Conference Board, and the National Science Foundation. In particular, I am indebted to Ms. Sharon Champion for her assistance throughout the planning of the conference, during the conference itself, and for the typing of the manuscripts for the proceedings.

Funds for the typing of the manuscripts were provided by the Department of Mathematics and the College of Liberal Arts of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Illinois.

Author: T. A. Burton