Mathematics in Life Sciences Scholarship Program

The increasing centrality of mathematics in life sciences research and thinking is obvious to anyone who has observed the field over the last few decades. Algorithmic annotation and analysis of massive amounts of sequence data has become a routine tool in all aspects of biology, including ecology and evolution, cancer research, neurobiology, agronomy, plant sciences, and other sub-disciplines too legion to enumerate. Over the same era, chemistry and physics, which have historically already been mathematics-intensive sciences, are increasingly being integrated into life sciences. Yet the mathematics training of American life science students does not generally prepare them well to exploit the opportunity that this interdisciplinary synergy offers. A consortium of science and mathematics researchers at our University of Missouri have established the Mathematics in Life Sciences Program to integrate mathematics more intimately into undergraduate science studies. Funding for this program is from a National Science Foundation PRISM grant awarded in 2009.

For more information on the PRISM program at the NSF, direct your browser to http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08596/nsf08596.htm