Interfacing mathematics and biology: a discussion on training, research, collaboration, and funding.
This article summarizes the discussion at a workshop on "Working at the Interface of Mathematics and Biology" at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. The goal of this workshop was to foster an ongoing discussion by the community on how to effectively train students from the biological, physical, engineering, and mathematical sciences to work at the intersection of these fields. One major point of discussion centered on how to be a successful interdisciplinary researcher in terms of where to publish, how to successfully write grants, and how to navigate evaluations for tenure and promotion. An emphasis was placed on the importance of developing strong multidisciplinary collaborations and clearly defining one's career trajectory to the home discipline. Another focus of the discussion was on the training of students and postdoctoral fellows in interdisciplinary work and helping these junior researchers to launch their careers. The group emphasized the need for the development of publicly available resources for biologists to learn basic tools for mathematical modeling and for mathematicians and engineers to see how their fields may be applied to current topics in the life sciences.
Department of Mathematics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 3250 Phillips Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. lam9@unc.edu
Laura A
LA
Miller
Silas
S
Alben
D019295:Computational Biology / Q000193:education*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003479:Curriculum; D004493:Education / Q000458:organization & administration; D005257:Fellowships and Scholarships; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D008433:Mathematics / Q000193:education*; D012106:Research / Q000191:economics* / Q000193:education; D013334:Students; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*; D014495:Universities