The University of Nebraska will host a two-day Conference on Mathematical Ecology, to take place in Lincoln, Nebraska on April 14-15, 2012. The conference theme is Population Dynamics and will be held in conjunction with the Howard Rowlee Lecture, an endowed public lecture intended for a general audience, presented annually by the Department of Mathematics. The 2012 Rowlee address will be given on April 13, 2012 by Mark Lewis, Professor of Mathematics and Biology at the University of Alberta. This conference will present an efficient interdisciplinary overview of current state-of-the-art research in population ecology, and will focus on the interplay between modeling, data collection, parameter estimation, numerical simulation, and mathematical analysis. The conference will feature 15 half-hour presentations by some of the most distinguished researchers in the field, a poster session, three organized 40-minute discussion times, and evening activities to encourage informal interactions. The conference will foster contacts between mathematicians and ecologists, and between early-career researchers and eminent researchers, encouraging new ideas and collaborations. Financial support will be used for partial support of travel and lodging for the participants, primarily for students and researchers in the early stages of their careers, and is intended to make the conference as accessible as possible to a diverse group of researchers.
on April 14-15, 2012. The conference theme was Population Dynamics, and was organized by the Department of Mathematics, The School of Biological Sciences and the School of Natural Resources. The Conference provided an interdisciplinary overview of current state-of-the-art research in Population Dynamics, and fostered contacts between mathematicians and ecologists, and contacts between early-career and senior researchers. The conference website is: www.math.unl.edu/events/special/population_dynamics/. The conference featured 14 half-hour presentations from some of the most distinguished researchers in the field. In accordance with our goal of having interdisciplinary interaction, seven of the speakers were from departments of biological sciences (three of these have Ph.D.s in mathematics); five of the speakers were from departments of mathematics; and two have joint appointments. Three speakers were from Canada, one from the United Kingdom and ten from the United States. There was a poster session with 25 posters, 21 of which were presented by early career researchers (defined as graduate students, postdocs, or untenured faculty). There were also two organized 40-minute discussion times with four breakout sessions each, a banquet (we asked the established researchers to sit with early-career participants), and organized but informal meal gatherings to encourage interactions between attendees. There were 92 participants, 27 of which were from 6 departments at the University of Nebraska, and 65 of which are from other institutions. 61 of the participants were partially supported by funds from the National Science Foundation. 39 of these were women, and we identified four from underrepresented groups in mathematics and biology. Of the 61 supported participants, we estimate that at least 40 were early-career researchers. Of the 92 participants, we estimate that at least 58 were early-career researchers. The conference addressed a wide range of topics in the general area of Population Dynamics, organized roughly thematically. The first set of lecture topics was: "Quantitative genetics and species’ ranges"; "Temporally variable dispersal and demography can accelerate the spread of invading species"; "Diffusion, density dependence and linearized transients - a triumvirate of destabilizing effects"; and "Models for the spread of Cholera". This was followed by breakout discussions on the topics: "Are transients here to stay?"; "Is trait variation just another form of stochasticity?"; "What kind of empirical evidence disproves a model and how should model predictions be tested?"; and "What can't we do now, that we need to figure out in the next 10 years?" The second set of lecture topics was: "Discrete random variable algebras and the representations of stochastic population models"; "Stage-plus-age dynamics: measures of reproductive timing that predict growth rate"; "Towards a mechanistic understanding of temperature effects on population viability; "Modeling population level impacts of engineered nanomaterials in the environment"; and "Risk assessment of oil sands pollution on fish population dynamics". This was followed by breakout discussions on the topics: "When are individual-based models useful?"; "What skills and/or knowledge (mathematical, ecological, computational) does the next generation of mathematical ecologists need?"; "Can we predict the relationship between biodiversity and particular ecosystem services?" and "Do we have the right models to predict the response of species' ranges to climate change?". The final set of lecture topics was: "Strategic models for spatial management of fisheries and their bioeconomic implications for marine reserves"; "Should I stay or should I go? An SDE [Stochastic Differential Equations] perspective on the ecology and evolution of movement"; Evolutionary stability of ideal free strategies in patchy environments"; "First passage time in complex environments: connecting random walks to functional responses"; and "Linking individual movements and population patterns in dynamic landscapes". From all of the feedback we obtained, the conference was a complete success. The talks were of high quality with an emphasis on being accessible to the participants, and the early-career participants made useful new contacts.
