The Role of Models of Contagion: Building Interdisciplinary Communities of Undergraduates Over 24 Years

Date: May 1st, 2019
Duration: 56m:40s

In 1996, the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute or MTBI was established at Cornell University. The goal was to bring undergraduates from diverse backgrounds into the field of mathematics and its applications, particularly within computational, mathematical and theoretical biology. In this lecture, I will discuss how MTBI (mtbi.asu.edu) was established and how it has evolved over the past 24 years. The role that MTBI has played in the development of nearly 160 PhDs and its impact on increased opportunities among underrepresented groups will also be highlighted. Finally, the extraordinary research generated by undergraduate participants over a few weeks, all available at https://mtbi.asu.edu/tech-report.

Carlos Castillo-Chavez is a Regents Professor, Joaquin Bustoz Jr. Professor of Mathematical Biology, Distinguished Sustainability Scientist and Founding Director of the Simon A. Levin Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center at ASU. Castillo-Chavez received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from three campuses of the University of Wisconsin and has co-authored over 250 publications. Per the Mathematics Genealogy Project, he is among the top 200 mentors of PhD students (49) in the history of mathematics. He was recognized with three White House Awards (1992, 1997, 2011) and served on President Obama’s Committee on the National Medal of Science (2010-2015). He is a George Polya Lecturer (2017-2019). He is a Provost Visiting Professor at Brown University, within its Division of Applied Mathematics and its Data Science Initiative. He is a fellow of SIAM, AMS, AAAS and the American College of Epidemiology.