Journal Club

The purpose of the journal club is to introduce beginning graduate students in Math Biology to some of the basic and classic papers in the field. Here is the tentative schedule (subject to change, of course) of the readings.

For more information contact Brynja Kohler or Bob Guy.


Mathematical Biology Journal Club



Spring Semester, 2002
Thursdays at 4:00pm in INSCC 345
NEW LOCATION!!! We'll be in LCB 322 for the rest of this semester!

  • January 16: G. E. Briggs and J. B. S. Haldane (1925), A note on the kinetics of enzyme action, Biochem. J., 19, 339-339.

  • January 24: E. M. Purcell (1977), Life at low Reynolds number, American Journal of Physics, Vol. 45, No. 1 (January), pp. 3-11. PLUS -- Paul Fife's notes from Lighthill on swimming microorganisms.

  • February 28: van der Pol and J. van der Mark (1928), The Heartbeat considered as a Relaxation oscillation, and an Electrical Model of the Heart, Phil. Mag. Suppl. #6 pp 763--775.

  • March 6: R. Fitzhugh (1961), Impulses and physiological states in theoretical models of nerve membranes, Biophys. J., 1, pp. 445--466.
    You don't need to read the sections titled "Hodgkin-Huxley physiological state diagram" and "Impulse Trains in the Hodgkin-Huxley equations." Compare this model to the van der Pol oscillator!

  • March 20: FitzHugh or Nagumo
    R. Fitzhugh (1961), Impulses and physiological states in theoretical models of nerve membranes, Biophys. J., 1, pp. 445--466.
    J. Nagumo, S. Arimoto, and S. Yoshizawa (1960), An active pulse transmission line simulating nerve axons, Proc. IRL, 50, pp. 2061--2070.

  • April 4: Volterra (1926) translation found in R. N. Chapman (1931), Animal Ecology, McGraw Hill, New York

  • April 11: Revisit: A. M. Turing, The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, Vol. 237, No. 641. (Aug. 14, 1952), pp. 37-72. and
    Hans Meinhardt (1995), Dynamics of Stripe Formation, Nature, 376, 722-723.

  • April 25: R. A. Fisher, The Wave of Advance of Advantageous Genes. Annals of Eugenics, 7: 355-369 (1937).



    Fall Semester, 2001
    Thursdays at 11am in INSCC 345

  • September 13: D. Ludwig, D. D. Jones, C. S. Holling, Qualitative Analysis of Insect Outbreak Systems: The Spruce Budworm and Forest, Journal of Animal Ecology, Vol. 47, No. 1. (Feb., 1978), pp. 315-332.

  • September 27: Robert M. May, George F. Oster, Bifurcations and Dynamic Complexity in Simple Ecological Models, American Naturalist, Vol. 110, No. 974. (Jul. - Aug., 1976), pp. 573-599.

  • October 11: P. H. Leslie, On the Use of Matrices in Certain Population Mathematics, Biometrika, Vol. 33, No. 3. (Nov., 1945), pp. 183-212.

  • October 18: W. O. Kermack, A. G. McKendrick, A Contribution to the Mathematical Theory of Epidemics, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character, Vol. 115, No. 772. (Aug. 1, 1927), pp. 700-721.

  • October 25: W. O. Kermack, A. G. McKendrick, Contributions to the Mathematical Theory of Epidemics. II. The Problem of Endemicity Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character, Vol. 138, No. 834. (Oct. 1, 1932), pp. 55-83.

  • November 8: A. M. Turing, The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, Vol. 237, No. 641. (Aug. 14, 1952), pp. 37-72.

  • November 29: R. A. Fisher, The Wave of Advance of Advantageous Genes. Annals of Eugenics, 7: 355-369 (1937).