Winter 2005
FEATURES
National Science Foundation Awards $806,000 Grant to College
By
Mary E. McCrank
The National Science Foundation has awarded a five-year grant totaling
$806,000 to the College to support its Undergraduate Biomathematical Research
Career Initiative.
The goal of the initiative — a collaboration of the College’s
mathematics, biology and chemistry departments launched this academic
year — is to train students for graduate school and careers in biomathematics
and address problems that reach across these disciplinary borders.
The BioMath Group, as it’s informally called, was formed by Anthony
J. Macula, associate professor of math; Chris Leary, the Spencer
Roemer Professor of Mathematics; Wendy K. Pogozelski, associate
professor of chemistry; and Gregg Hartvigsen, associate
professor of biology.
"There are many goals of this grant, but one of them is pushing a
cultural shift to merge these disciplines," said Hartvigsen.
The grant provides continuing financial assistance for 16 students in
two related projects and will institute broad, integrated curricular improvement
in the area of biomathematics. One of the goals is to increase the number
of students and faculty performing research at the intersection of the
two fields.
"We’re trying to increase the number of undergraduate students
doing research that integrates math, biology and chemistry," said
Leary.
The research-based program combines new and revised problem-based curricular
components — such as calculus for biologists, modeling biological
systems, biological data analysis, discrete mathematics, graph theory,
probability, statistics and computational molecular analysis — with
research activities ranging from biomolecular computing to individual-based,
evolutionary modeling of food webs (interconnected food chains) that push
the boundaries of modern techniques in understanding complex problems.
The initiative provides students the opportunity to blend new classroom-based
studies with research projects at the frontier of biomathematics. These
projects also serve as a stimulus for faculty development and curricular
innovation.
About three-quarters of the grant total goes to students. The majority
of that is for stipends for students conducting research, while a portion
also provides for them to travel to conferences to present their research.
The remainder of the grant will support the professors’ involvement
as mentors to the students. The grant also allows for one of the four
professors to offer a new course each semester in support of the program.
These courses include Computational Molecular Biology, Modeling Biological
Systems, Biomathematics Seminar, DNA for Mathematicians and INTD101: Understanding
Student Social Networks.
In addition, the College will sponsor an annual undergraduate conference
focused on research in biomathematics, bring outside experts to campus
to run workshops and observe the accomplishments of Geneseo’s research.
The first conference is set for April.
SUNY Geneseo has matched the grant with $19,000 in equipment and a total
of $25,000 for instructional support for the next five years.
Leary said the grant will better help Geneseo prepare students so they
can become "leading researchers in the future."
The past decade has seen remarkable change in research because of computers.
"Because of computer development, the barrier between disciplines
is fading," said Macula.
Pogozelski agrees, noting that computers now can do complex mathematical
models. "Biology is increasingly reliant on mathematics," she
said.
Computers also can recreate ecosystems, allowing researchers to better
understand biological systems and make predictions about the future, said
Hartvigsen.
"We can gain insight in how nature works by using these systems,"
he said. "We’re able to understand that much better by doing
it in a computer."
Juniors Amy Zielinski and Jackie Dresch are studying the
transmission of influenza, with Hartvigsen and Leary serving as
their mentors. The students have been working on the project since their
sophomore year, and, Dresch said she hopes the research can be continued
until graduation.
Zielinski, a 20-year-old biology major from Elma, N.Y., and Dresch, a
20-year-old math major from Liverpool, N.Y., plan to further their studies
after graduating from Geneseo.
Zielinski and Dresch used a computer to create networks made up of nodes
(the hosts) and edges (connections between hosts who know one another).
They vaccinate a certain percentage of hosts using one of five strategies
and then infect the population with influenza. Based on the percentage
of the population that becomes infected, they evaluate the efficacy of
each strategy.
Zielinski and Dresch said they have learned valuable skills they didn’t
expect.
"As a biology major, this research has helped me understand the critical
relationship between biology and mathematics," said Zielinski. "As
a freshman in college, I was sure that I wanted to attend medical school
after I graduated. This research has sparked my interest in other areas,
such as epidemiology, and now I’m planning to at least apply to graduate
schools with bio-math programs."
Dresch said she has learned the intricate part math plays in biological
research. "Before I started working on this research, I wanted to
study nothing but pure mathematics. Since I’ve been on the team,
I have become much more interested in biology, and science in general,"
she said. "I no longer see biology as that dreadful subject I took
to fill some core requirement, but something that can actually help me
better understand things later in life, especially when I get to graduate
school and begin studying more applied mathematics or want to do research."