This award will support a seminar, "Dynamics of Complex Interconnected Biological Systems", organized jointly by Prof. Thomas L. Vincent of the University of Arizona, Tucson, and Prof. A.I. Mees of the University of Western Australia. Participants will meet in Albany, Western Australia, in January 1989 to identify and begin to address problems in the modeling of complex interconnected biological systems. This seminar will bring together experts in game theory and chaos theory, both of which are playing an increasingly important role in the understanding of evolutionary processes in interconnected systems, in an attempt to take advantage of the synergy of interdis- ciplinary overlap. Recent developments in both game theory and chaos theory have led to an improved understanding of dynamical systems; while game theory is ideal for understanding interconnected systems, chaos theory is leading to a complementary understanding of complex systems. Biological systems, which are generally both complex and intercon- nected, are a suitable arena in which to bring the two disciplines together to resolve fundamental problems existing in biological modeling. The University of Western Australia is the home of an active dynamical systems group and this workshop will also take advantage of already-existing research ties between the Australian and U.S. participants.
