This seminar, open only to freshmen, will be offered in Spring 2009. Topics
usually include: the heart and circulation, heat and temperature regulation,
oxygen uptake in the lungs, the immune system and infectious diseases,
nephrons and the kidney, ovulation number in mammals, chemistry and cell
metabolism, sensory neurobiology. Other topics may be substituted
depending on the interests of the students enrolled.
The structure of the course will be as follows. During the first half the
instructor will lecture and students will do background reading and work in
groups on problem sets, often presenting their group work to the class.
Before Spring Break, each student will choose a research project
from a list of about 30 possible projects presented by the instructor or
create a project based on their own interests (with the approval of the
instructor). During the second half of the semester, each student gives two
25 minute lectures to the seminar on his or her research project
and writes a 20 page paper. There is no midterm. The final exam covers the
problem sets from the first half of the semester.
Recent student research topics were: ``Mathematical Models of the Control
of Ovulation,'' ``Mathematics and Physiology of the Human Eye,'' ``The
Vestibular System: the Center of All Balance,'' ``Mechanical Heart Valves and
Models of Stenosis,'' Mathematical Epidemic Models,'' ``Diabetes and a
Mathematical Model of the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test,'' ``Information
Theory and Molecular Biology,'' ``A Biological and Mathematical Analysis of
HIV,'' ``Mathematical Modeling of Muscle Crossbridge
Dynamics,''``Information Theory and Molecular Biology,'' ``Two-step
Chemotherapy, a Mathematical Model,'' ``Increased Intracranial Pressure: A
Biological Investigation and a Mathematical Model,'' ``The Immune System:
a Biological and Mathematical Explanation,'' ``Applications of Mathematics to
Animal Scaling,'' ``DNA Sequence Analysis and Pairwise Alignment,'' ``How
Do Fish School?'', ``Mathematical Models of Different CPR Techniques.''
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