Dear SMB Member:
The last few months have been busy ones for the Society.
Here are some of the activities that have been underway.
Billings for the 1998 year were sent out by Torcom Chorbajian in
November. We are taking over the billing from Elsevier, the previous
publisher of the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, in an effort to
eliminate the multiple problems that members experienced in the past.
If you have not done so yet, please return your dues now.
The first issue of the Bulletin for Mathematical Biology published by
Academic Press will be out in January, 1998.
Several sessions in mathematical biology are being arranged for the annual
meeting to take place in conjunction with the SIAM annual
meeting in
Toronto July 13-17, 1998. Minisymposia are tentatively scheduled in
interacting populations, dynamical control, fisheries, DNA
computation, physiological dynamics, delays in biological systems,
education, and employment in biotechnology. Several plenary speakers
will deal with issues of interest in mathematical biology. Please
check the conference homepage
http://www.siam.org/meetings/an98/an98home.htm
for up-to-date information. Society for Mathematical Biology members
register for the meeting at the same rate as SIAM members. SMB student
members are eligible to apply for support for travel to the meeting.
The web site http://www.smb.org is now online. A prime objective for
the new year will be to build the site to be a central clearinghouse
for activities in mathematical biology. This will be coordinated by
Ramit Mehr - the new chair of the Publications Committee (see the
letter from the publications committee in this issue).
Additional objectives for the New Year include developing SMB
activities oriented towards education, under the newly formed
Education Committee headed by John Jungck (see the letter from John
Jungck in this issue), and also to try to make funding agencies
more aware of the potential and the needs for mathematical analysis in
the biological sciences. If you have not already done so, please
respond to the NIH funding survey being carried out by Denise
Kirschner athttp://malthus.micro.med.umich.edu/~kirschne/survey.html
(NOTE: survey no longer there... )
I believe that the potential for the Society to fulfill its roles in
catalyzing research and education in mathematical biology would be
enhanced if the Society were larger. I encourage each society member
to recruit one additional member.
With all best wishes for the New Year.
Yours sincerely,
Leon Glass
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