Meeting The Challenges

Math & Bio 2010
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Math & Bio 2010: Linking Undergraduate Disciplines

Every day, findings in genetics, cell biology, ecology, medicine, and evolution excite our imaginations and drive sectors of the economy. New approaches and new tools need to be developed, tested, and disseminated to harness this wealth of new information. Additionally, students need to be introduced to these materials at the undergraduate level to be prepared for future careers and to understand the nature of scientific knowledge.

These emerging areas transcend traditional academic boundaries and require interdisciplinary approaches that integrate biology, mathematics, and computer science. Examples of interdisciplinary fields of study include biotechnology, biostatistics, biomathematics, and bioinformatics. Unfortunately, the undergraduate programs in our colleges and universities are not yet preparing students with the necessary set of skills to enter these new interdisciplinary fields. This point was recently made by the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science report, BIO2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists (http://www.nap.edu/books/0309085357/html/). The report calls for important changes in undergraduate biology training, especially for better preparation in mathematics, physics, and other quantitative sciences.

Meeting the Challenges: Education Across the Biological, Mathematical and Computer Sciences, a joint project of the Mathematical Association of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society for Microbiology, is funded by the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health. The goal of the program is to explore strategies for integrating biology, mathematics, and computer science more effectively in the undergraduate curricula, and to alert faculty to the expanding and exciting challenges of interdisciplinary work in these fields.