Mathematical Biology

It has been over a decade since the release first edition of the now classic original edition of Murray's Mathematical Biology. Since then mathematical biology and medicine has grown at an astonishing rate and has established itself as a distinct discipline. Mathematical modelling is now being applied in every major discipline in the biomedical sciences. Though the field has become increasingly large and specialized, this book remains important as a text that introduces some of the exciting problems which arise in the biomedical sciences and gives some indication of the wide spectrum of questions that modelling can address.

This publication is a Special Issue of the journal Axioms entitled “Calculus of Variations, Optimal Control and Mathematical Biology: A Themed Issue Dedicated to Professor Delfim F. M. Torres on the Occasion of His 50th birthday”. This Special Issue is dedicated to Professor Delfim F. M. Torres on his 50th birthday, as a recognition of his significant contributions to Mathematics, in particular regarding the calculus of variations, optimal control, and mathematical biology. Professor Torres is a distinguished University Professor, a highly cited researcher in Mathematics (in the top 1% for Mathematics in the Web of Science in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019), and a lifetime member of the American Mathematical Society.

This book developed from classes in mathematical biology taught by the authors over several years at the Technische Universität München. The main themes are modeling principles, mathematical principles for the analysis of these models and model-based analysis of data. The key topics of modern biomathematics are covered: ecology, epidemiology, biochemistry, regulatory networks, neuronal networks and population genetics. A variety of mathematical methods are introduced, ranging from ordinary and partial differential equations to stochastic graph theory and branching processes. A special emphasis is placed on the interplay between stochastic and deterministic models.

The purpose of this work is to focus mathematical modeling on issues affecting women’s health. Working in six collaborative teams, researchers developed new mathematical models to address questions in a range of application areas. Topics include HIV, oral contraceptives, blood clotting, breast cancer, neonatal respiration, and outbreak forecasting. The work is the result of newly formed collaborative groups begun during the Collaborative Workshop for Women in Mathematical Biology hosted by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and UnitedHealth Group Optum in June 2022.

In May 1984 the Swedish Council for Scientific Research convened a small group of investigators at the scientific research station at Abisko, Sweden, for the purpose of examining various conceptual and mathematical views of the evolution of complex systems. The stated theme of the meeting was deliberately kept vague, with only the purpose of discussing alternative mathematically based approaches to the modeling of evolving processes being given as a guideline to the participants. In order to limit the scope to some degree, it was decided to emphasize living rather than nonliving processes and to invite participants from a range of disciplinary specialities spanning the spectrum from pure and applied mathematics to geography and analytic philosophy.