This proposal is for partial funding for the Fourth International Conference on Mathematical Modeling and Analysis of Populations in Biological Systems that will be held at the campus of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, on October 4-6, 2013. The conference will provide a venue that will foster new collaborations that stimulate novel ideas, advancing the field of mathematical modeling in the analysis of populations across several biological levels. Specific topics to be addressed include: cell signaling, chemotaxis, epidemiology, species range shifts, and macroecology.
Interdisciplinary collaborations are crucial in developing applications pertaining to human health and biodiversity conservation in our rapidly changing world. This conference will bring together researchers and students at all levels from multiple disciplines to foster such collaborations and to identify areas of common ground linking otherwise relatively disparate research areas. Special efforts have been taken to include members of underrepresented groups at all levels. The results of the conference will be disseminated via a conference website and a special issue in the Journal of Biological Dynamics.
Plenary talks (5), minisymposia (8) and contributed sessions (8) were held over 2.5 days for ICMA IV, October 4-6, 2013, hosted by Texas Tech University. Five plenary speakers were Thomas Hillen, University of Alberta, Robert Holt, University of Florida, Yuan Lou, Ohio State University, Pauline van den Driessche, University of Victoria, and Abdul-Aziz Yakubu, Howard University. Contributed talks were identified by topics: ecology, epidemiology, epidemiology/immunology, chemotaxis/population. Minisymposium titles are listed below: M1: Persistence and Permanence in Multi-Species Population Models M2: Modeling for Biosurveillance and Risk Assessment of Emerging Infectious Diseases M3: Population-Level Epidemiological Modeling with an Ecological Perspective M4: Evolutionary Modeling in Ecology M5: Chemotactic Modeling of Inflammatory Type Diseases M6: Mathematical Modeling of Prion Dynamics and Transmission M7: Recent Advances in Mathematical Epidemiology and Ecology M8: Stochastic and Deterministic Modeling and Analysis of Biological Systems A total of 93 participants registered for ICMA IV with 60 invited or contributed talks, 11 posters, and 5 plenary talks during 2.5 days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning, October 4-6, 2013. The final schedule of presentations for ICMA IV and the abstracts can be found at the conference website: www.math.ttu.edu/icma/ The website for the conference acknowledges NSF support (financial aid, poster advertisement and sponsors) and provides other information about the conference. The conference provided ample opportunities for interactions between participants following each plenary address, morning and afternoon, and during lunch breaks. A Friday evening reception and poster presentation also provided opportunities for discussions among participants. A special issue devoted to ICMA IV will be published by the Journal of Biological Dynamics (JBD). Editors of this special issue are L. J. S. Allen, J. Li, and P. van den Driessche. Manuscripts for this issue are currently under review or revision or are being processed. Recipients of NSF support through this award were for travel and/or lodging to participate and to present either a poster or an oral presentation at ICMA IV. The recipients included 28 early career investigators and 2 plenary speakers. All early career investigators were either graduate students, postdoctoral associates or recent PhD graduates (<6 years) with special consideration given to underrepresented groups with respect to gender, ethnic, geographic, and institutional diversity.
