Announcing an intensive summer workshop at the Santa Fe Institute:
MODELING AND SIMULATING BIOCOMPLEXITY
FOR MATHEMATICIANS AND PHYSICISTS
Location: Santa Fe Institute (SFI), Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Dates: Sunday, August 4 through Friday, August 9, 2002
PARTICIPANTS
Ph.D. students, post-doctoral students and young faculty members in
mathematics, and physicists who are interested in applying their
knowledge in the biological sciences.
PREREQUISITES
This workshop is dedicated to assisting theoreticians who wish to switch
their interests into biology. Thus, no biological background will be
assumed (though general background reading is of course helpful).
Preference will be given to those for whom this experience is their
first, or one of their first, in theoretical biology. Mathematicians
should have had some experience in applying mathematics to some other
area; please indicate this experience in your statement of research
interests.
BACKGROUND
SFI has been given a 5-year grant by the National Institute of General
Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to promote
the interaction of experiment and theory in biology. The principal
investigators on the grant are Ellen Goldberg (President, SFI) and Lee
Segel (Weizmann Institute, External Faculty, SFI). The first
course/workshop in this series was held at SFI in August, 2001, and was
entitled "Mathematical models in molecular and cellular biology." This
event was aimed at showing biologists with a minimal theoretical
background how theory can add to their understanding of biology. This
year aims at the other side of the coin.
We expect about 30 carefully selected participants to attend, and about
10 outstanding lecturers to present. Typically, each lecturer will give
two 75-minute lectures, starting with a careful description of the
relevant biological background and continuing with the theoretical
analysis and its significance.
LECTURERS (Partial list)
Note that the following are authors or co-authors of major textbooks in
mathematical/theoretical biology: Edelstein, Keener and Sneyd, Murray,
Segel.
Leah Edelstein (University of British Columbia)
Actin dynamics and the cytoskeleton
James Keener (University of Utah)
Modeling heart physiology and cardiac arrhythmias as excitable media
Betty Korber (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Bioinformatics and AIDS
Henry Markram (Weizmann Institute)
"Liquid computing" by brain microcircuits
Michael Laessig (University of Cologne)
On the physics of biological information: sequence similarity
James Murray (University of Washington)
The growth and control of brain tumors
Luca Peliti (University of Naples) Evolution
Lee Segel (Weizmann Institute)
Generating an appropriate immune response
James Sneyd (Massey University)
Cell sodium and calcium: oscillations, waves,
and cell volume control
LOCATION
The Santa Fe Institute and St. John's College are located in lovely
hills above Santa Fe, New Mexico, at an elevation of 7000 feet. There
are wonderful camping and hiking areas; less than 20 minutes' drive
brings one to the 10,000 foot base of the ski area. Below lies the high
desert, and more great hikes.
The small town of Santa Fe is the third largest art center in the United
States. During the summer, the remarkable Santa Fe opera is in full
swing, as is a superb chamber music festival. You may visit the city of
Santa Fe website at http://www.santafe.org/
HOUSING/COSTS
No tuition is charged. Housing and meals will be provided, at no cost
to participants, at St. John's College in Santa Fe, N.M. Housing will be
in single dormitory rooms with shared bathrooms. Telephone and computer
network connectors will be available. Travel funds are provided if
funding is not available from other sources. Housing and travel funding
for families is not available. Enrollment is limited.
HOW TO APPLY
Applications can be submitted via our online application form,
http://www.santafe.edu/modeling2002/, or via postal mail.
To apply via postal mail: send a current resume with publications list
(if any),a one- to two-page statement of current research interests and
why this workshop would be beneficial to you, and two letters of
recommendation from scientists who know your work. Include your email
address and fax number. Specify whether you wish to apply for a travel
scholarship. Send only complete application packages to:
Modeling and Simulating Biocomplexity
MS NG
Santa Fe Institute
1399 Hyde Park Road
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 USA
Applications must be postmarked or electronically submitted by March 1,
2002.
Women, minorities, and students from developing countries are especially
encouraged to apply.
For further information: http://www.santafe.edu/mathmodel/, or
mathmodel at santafe.edu.
