PIMS IGTC Mathematical Biology Summer School

COURSE STRUCTURE

Humans have introduced most of the alien species found worldwide. If these species manage to survive, reproduce, spread and finally harm a new environment, they are called invasive. Invasive species can change habitats and ecosystem processes, crowd out native species or damage human activities, ultimately costing the global economy an estimated $1.4 trillion per year. The dramatic progression of an invasion involves a series of complex dynamical processes that requires sophisticated mathematical language to describe, quantify and investigate. This course will focus on development and analysis of mathematical models that have and can be applied to these processes.

The course will be based on three components: lectures, computer labs and group projects.  The first two weeks will focus on the lectures and computer labs. Four international Distinguished Lecturers will give the lectures, and the computer labs will apply their lecture material to the modelling and analysis real biological invasions. The focus on the last week will be group projects where students will apply their modelling, mathematical and computational skills to solving problems in the area of biological invasions.  
 

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

Primary Course Organizer
·    Prof. Thomas Hillen (Professor of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Alberta, Canada)

Distinguished Lecturers
·    Prof. Alan Hastings (Distinguished Professor, University of California, Davis USA)

·    Prof. Mark Lewis (Canada Research Chair in Mathematical Biology, University of Alberta, Canada)

·    Prof. Jonathan Sherratt (Professor of Mathematics, Heriot Watt University, UK)

·    Prof. Sergei Petrovskii (Professor in Applied Mathematics, Leicester University, UK).

Poster Session

There will be the opportunity for students to bring a poster about their current work to the workshop. We will organize a poster session on one of the evenings where you can showcase what you are currently working on. The topics will be very mixed and do not need to relate to invasions. If you have no poster to present, that is fine too.