We are excited to share news about the 2019 Annual Meeting, SMB’s new Publications Chair, the 2018 Awards for Established Scientists, and recently formed centers on mathematical biology. Read on below:
2019 SMB Annual Meeting
The 2019 Annual Meeting of the Society for Mathematical Biology will be held from July 22-26, 2019. Save the date, and make plans to attend! Dr. Jacques Bélair, a member of the organizing committee, provides exciting details below!
We are very excited to host SMB 2019 (www.smb2019.org) at the University of Montreal, in beautiful Montreal, Canada! The Université de Montréal (est. 1878) is located on the northern slope of Mount Royal (the mountain that gives Montreal its name). The university is home to programs in a wide variety of disciplines, and houses the Centre de Recherches Mathématiques (CRM, www.crm.umontreal.ca/en/), the host institute of SMB 2019.
The theme of SMB 2019 is “From the Genome, to the Biome”. We welcome minisymposium proposals and abstract (talk and poster) submissions that tie to this theme (which is practically everything!).
A few dates to remember:
Minisymposium proposal deadline: February 1, 2019
Abstract submission deadline: March 29, 2019
Early conference registration: March 1 – April 20 (after which registration fees will increase)
Travel related information:
Passports and Visas: Foreign participants must have a valid passport to enter Canada. You may also require a visa before coming to Canada. Please see the following website for information www.cic.gc.ca/english/h
elpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=416&top=16 and contact the nearest Canadian Visa Office (at a Canadian Embassy or Consulate) if you have any questions.
Airport: Pierre-Elliot Trudeau (YUL) airport serves the greater Montreal area, with over 130 direct connections globally. Is. is a 20-minute drive to the university, and downtown Montreal.
Maps: Montreal metro transit system: www.stm.info/en
Université de Montréal campus map: plancampus.umontreal.ca/montreal/
Please stay connected to the annual meeting website www.smb2019.org as information will be posted there as it becomes available (i.e., hotel information, registration links, timetable).
We hope to see you at SMB 2019!
Jacques Bélair
SMB Publications Chair
Prof. Ruth Baker (University of Oxford), of the SMB Board of Directors, is the new Publications Chair for SMB. We welcome Ruth and look forward to her continuing service to the Society. The Society owes a great debt of gratitude to Santiago Schnell (University of Michigan) for his service as Publications Chair.
SMB 2018 Awards for Established Scientists
Professor Denise Kirschner, President of SMB, announced the recipients of the Society’s 2018 Awards for Established Scientists:
- Arthur Sherman, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, will receive the Arthur T. Winfree Prize for his work on biophysical mechanisms underlying insulin secretion from pancreatic beta-cells.
- Robert J. Smith?, University of Ottawa, will be the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award for successfully using pop culture to showcase the power of mathematical modeling of infectious diseases, sparking the interest of mathematical and non-mathematical audiences worldwide.
- Nick Monk, University of Sheffield, will be the recipient of the John Jungck Prize for Excellence in Education. This Prize is given for significant contributions to education in mathematical biology, including a distinguished record of excellence in classroom instruction, mentorship of students, development of novel educational methods, materials, and programs, promotion of scientific outreach, a track record of attracting new students to the field of mathematical biology, and creation of an environment exceptionally conducive to education in mathematical biology.
- Helen Byrne, University of Oxford, will be the recipient of the Leah Edelstein-Keshet Prize for her work focused on the development and analysis of mathematical and computational models that describe biomedical systems, with particular application to the growth and treatment of solid tumors, wound healing and tissue engineering.
- Naoki Masuda, University of Bristol, will be the recipient of the Junior Akira Okubo Prize for his outstanding breadth of research, ranging from neuroscience to epidemiology to game theory, and for the outstanding originality of his ideas.
- Francis Woodhouse, University of Cambridge, H. D. Landahl Mathematical Biophysics Award. This Award will recognize the scientific contributions made by a postdoctoral fellow who is making exceptional scientific contributions to mathematical biology.
- Fellows of the Society: Ramit Mehr, Bar-Ilan University, and Eberhard Voit, Georgia Tech
This is an outstanding group of researchers, who are making great strides in applying mathematical approaches to uncover new insights in a wide range of fields, from neuroscience to oncology. Join us in celebrating their great achievements. We look forward to their stimulating talks at the 2019 SMB Annual Meeting.
Read about each awardee here.
Four new NSF-funded Mathematical Biology Centers are open!
We are excited to highlight the four new centers focused on mathematical biology! The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) partnered with the Simons Foundation to jointly sponsor new research centers for mathematics in biological sciences at various institutions in the United States. The goal of this support is “to support innovative, collaborative research at the intersection of mathematics and molecular, cellular and organismal biology, to establish new connections between mathematical sciences and biological sciences and to promote interdisciplinary education and workforce training.”
The centers, listed here, include:
- NSF-Simons Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology
Georgia Institute of Technology - NSF-Simons Center for Mathematical and Statistical Analysis of Biology
Harvard University - NSF-Simons Center for Multiscale Cell Fate Research
University of California, Irvine - NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology
Northwestern University
In this issue, we highlight the Center at the University of California, Irvine, which is under the direction of Qing Nie, Chancellor’s Professor of Mathematics, Developmental & Cell Biology, and Biomedical Engineering. Professor Nie provided this summary:
The NSF-Simons Center for Multiscale Cell Fate Research (CMCF) at University of California Irvine is connecting scientists across mathematical, physical, and biological sciences to usher in a new era of biology. With a focus on understanding cell fate through multiscale approaches of single cells, CMCF provides a variety of research and training activities at the interface between mathematics and biology (details here). More information on opportunities for center postdoctoral fellow, Convergence Acceleration Teams , Community-Initiated Topical Workshops, and other center activities can be found at the center’s website: cellfate.uci.edu/.
Join us in congratulating the many mathematicians, statisticians and biologists that are part of these Centers! We eagerly await the exciting research progress and outreach activities that are sure to come.
We look forward to receiving more news of achievements, such as prizes, election into academies, and named professorships. Send them along so that we can highlight SMB’s outstanding members!