Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Applied Mathematics and Biology

Introduction

For the past three years, through funding from the National Science Foundation, we have been able provide summer research fellowships for six undergraduates at Brown each year to conduct research and to continue their research in the academic year. Preference is given to students in their junior year. The award has been part of an ongoing program at NSF to train undergraduate students in modern research techniques at the intersection of mathematics and the life sciences. This provides an exciting opportunity for students concentrating in applied mathematics or the biological sciences to work on leading-edge research projects alongside teams of faculty and graduate students drawn from both areas. The goal is to develop a balanced understanding of the biology and the mathematical descriptions using experiments and experimental data, computation and mathematical models.

Students are involved in regular research meetings and seminars, and have the opportunity to present their research at regional or national conferences. Students learn about new advances in research and they gain invaluable experience that helps prepare them for graduate level programs later on.

This program for undergraduate research in Applied Mathematics and Biological Sciences will continue, however support will come primarily from other sources. For 2011-2012, interested students should first contact one of the participating faculty listed below to discuss their research interests with a view to submitting an application to the Brown UTRA Program or to a related program at Brown.

Applications for the UBM 2011 Summer Program should be submitted by March 11, 2011 for full consideration. For information contact one of the participating faculty listed below. Decisions on support will be made by April 6, 2011.

UBM 2011 Summer Program Application in WORD and PDF format.

Participating faculty

William Fairbrother (Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry)
George Karniadakis (Applied Mathematics)
Charles Lawrence (Applied Mathematics and Computational Molecular Biology)
Heather Leslie (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)
Martin Maxey (Applied Mathematics)
Peter Richardson (Engineering and Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology)
Jay Tang (Physics)
William Thompson (Applied Mathematics)
Daniel Weinreich (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)

Project areas

Physiology of arterial blood flow and human circulation, hemostasis and the formation of blood clots
Bacterial dynamics and cell motility, including response to chemical signals
Genomics and mechanisms regulating gene expression
Evolutionary genetics

Eligibility

The undergraduate participants will be selected from Brown University students who are in their junior or sophomore year and have completed relevant courses in applied mathematics, biology, mathematics, and physics or chemistry. The NSF funds are available to US citizens or permanent residents. For further information, please contact Prof. Martin Maxey (maxeydam.brown.edu) or one of the participating faculty listed above.

Program

The main element is a ten week summer research program, where students work in teams and alongside faculty and graduate students on a research project. Students are encouraged to continue research in the academic year as an independent study or for an honors thesis. There will be regular research team meetings, full group meetings of all participants and informal seminars or discussions with invited speakers. The ten-week summer program will run from Wednesday June 1 to Friday August 5. Students will receive a stipend of $3500 for the period, with an additional allowance for housing and expenses.

Publications

Click here for published papers, conference papers, or papers submitted for publication involving students at Brown supported by the NSF UBM Program.

Figure: Increase in swimming speed of artificial micro-swimmer, driven by rotating magnetic field, due to wall effects based on cell height h and cell head radius R.

Figure: Parallel Simulations of the human arterial tree on
the NSF TeraGrid (cross-sites Simulations at NCSA/PSC/SDSC and Argonne National Labs). Fifty five
main arteries were simulated for first time allowing investigation of pathologies such as atherosclerosis in carotid arteries and brain aneurisms. Both PDE-based and atomistic simulations are involved (DPD simulations, see sketch).