Introduction

Abstract

The progress in the biological sciences over the last several decades has been revolutionary, and it is reasonable to expect that this pace of progress, facilitated by huge advances in technology, will continue in the following decades. Mathematics has historically contributed to, as well as benefited from, progress in the natural sciences, and it can play the same role in the biological sciences. For this reason we believe that it is important to introduce students very early, already at the freshman or sophomore level, with just basic knowledge in Calculus, to the interdisciplinary field of mathematical biology. A typical case study in mathematical biology consists of several steps. The initial step is a description of a biological process which gives rise to several biological questions where mathematics could be helpful in providing answers. The second step is to develop a mathematical model that represents the relevant biological process. The next step is to use mathematical theories and computational methods in order to derive mathematical predictions from the model. The final step is to check that the mathematical predictions provide answers to the biological question. One can then further explore related biological questions by using the mathematical model.