Congratulations to an interdisciplinary group of colleagues that includes Sarah Eichhorn, German Enciso, John Lowengrub, Qing Nie and Fred Wan (PI) of Mathematics and Brad Hughes, Larry Marsh, Diane O'Dowd and Dominik Wodarz of the School of Biological Sciences. The group has been awarded a 3-year, $800,000 NSF Grant to create a new interdisciplinary research and educational program in mathematical and computational biology for UCI undergraduates.

The MCBU program will consist of (1) a new mathematics major specialization in Mathematical Biology with a new three course sequence on Mathematical Modeling in Biology, (2) a new mathematics department minor in Applied Mathematics for Biology designed for students in various biology disciplines to supplement their biology training with relevant mathematics courses, and (3) significant research opportunities for teams consisting of at least one mathematics and one biology undergraduate student. At least five such research teams per year will be jointly supervised by mathematics and biology faculty. Students will start with an intense summer training program and then continue with part time research work throughout the following school year.

NOTE: The details for the new specialization, minor, and Bio Math undergrad courses are all still in the planning phase and subject to ultimate approval by the Academic Senate. If approved, the the soonest they could go into effect would be for the 2012-2013 academic year