Undergraduate interdisciplinary majors combining mathematics and biology can be found under many different names: biomathematics or mathematical biology, computational biology, bioinformatics, bioengineering, biomedical engineering, biotechnology, biostatistics (sometimes under statistics or public health), biometrics, quantitative biology, systems biology, applied mathematics, complex systems, genomics, biophysics, epidemiology (under public health), biomedical science, and theoretical biology. Some schools offer a concentration in one of these areas within their mathematics, statistics, or biology majors. Other schools may only offer minors in this somewhat new fields.
A great way to see if these areas of study might be right for you is
to get involved in a small research project.
There are many internships and summer research experiences
available, especially for minorities and women, and some may be open to
high
school students. Try an internet search
or ask teachers in your school if they know of any opportunities. You may even want to contact professors at
nearby colleges to see if you could get involved in one of their
projects.
Summer Internship Program in Biomedical Research at the National Institutes of Health
Summer Math Camps and Programs - American Mathematical Society
Other Links:
Article on the Mathematical Biology Job Market
Careers in Theoretical Biology
American
Mathematical Society Links for High School Students and Teachers
The list below is not a complete list of schools offering
these interdisciplinary majors, and the sample course requirements are
not
guaranteed to be accurate. This list is
simply meant to give you some idea of the types of courses a student
would take
under the major. If you notice that any links have become
inactive, please
e-mail me: Laura463 {AT} hotmail {DOT} com.
If you would like a link to be added, please send me the program
URL.
Biomathematics:
Rutgers University (New Jersey)
University of Scranton (Pennsylvania)
Harvey Mudd College (California)
Massey University (New Zealand)
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Simon Fraser University (Canada)
Brigham Young University (Utah)
Others: The International Society for Computational Biology
Computational Biology and Mathematical Biology:
Bioengineering:
University
of Illinois at Chicago
University
of California, Berkeley
Biomedical Engineering:
Carnegie
Mellon University (Pennsylvania)
Biotechnology:
Cook College, Rutgers University (New Jersey)
Biostatistics:
University of North Carolina, School of Public Health
Biometry and Statistics (with an optional Statistical Genomics concentration):
Quantitative Biology:
Biological Physics:
Brandeis University (Massachusetts)
Course requirements for sample majors:
Core Biology and
Chemistry required
courses:
General Biology I and
II, General
Chemistry I and II, Introduction to Experimentation
Mathematics required
courses:
Calculus I, II, and III,
Introductory Linear Algebra, Elementary Differential Equations,
Differential
Equations in Biology, Discrete and Probabilistic Models in Biology,
Mathematical Theory of Probability, Mathematical Theory of Statistics
One of the following
six courses:
Linear Algebra,
Numerical Analysis,
Elementary Partial Differential Equations, Graph Theory, Combinatorics,
Probability II
One laboratory course
Electives – Four
courses from the
following list:
Fundamentals of neurobiology, Fundamentals of cell and developmental biology, Systems Physiology, Advanced Neurobiology, Advanced Cell Biology, Immunology, Organic Chemistry, Genetics, Behavioral Genetics, General Microbiology, Topics Molecular Genetics, Evolutionary Genetics, Principles of Applied Ecology, Principles of Evolution, Population Genetics
At most one of: Molecular Biology, Introductory Biochemistry and
Molecular
Biology, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry I, Molecular Biology and
Biochemistry II
At most one of: Cardiovascular Engineering, Fundamentals of Computer Tomography, Sensory Process, Mechanisms, and Computational Models.
Bioinformatics
at Cornell (www.cis.cornell.edu/cb/undergrad.htm)
–
core
training in biology and the
supporting sciences of physics and chemistry, plus…
one
course in computer programming
one
course in mathematics (Linear Algebra and Calculus,
Linear Algebra, Engineering Mathematics II, Differential Equations and
Dynamical Systems, Theory of Probability, Matrix Computation)
a
bridging course, i.e., a course in mathematical
modeling applied to biology (Dynamic Models in Biology, Theoretical
Ecology,
Numerical Methods in Computational Molecular Biology, Introduction to
Statistical Genomics and Bioinformatics)
one
course from the following list of advanced courses:
Protein Structure and Function, Population Genetics, Molecular Evolution, Human Genomics, Introduction to Computational Neuroscience, Modeling Behavioral Evolution, Phylogenetic Systematics, Quantitative Animal Genetics, Applied Population Ecology, Quantitative Ecology of Fisheries, Wildlife Population Analysis: Techniques & Models, Spatial Statistics, Theory of Probability, Statistical Genomics, Computationally Intensive Statistical Inference, Data Structures and Algorithms for Computational Science, Computers and Programming, Introduction to Computational Biology, Computational Molecular Biology, Computational Biology: The Machine Learning Approach, Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems, Engineering Probability and Statistics II, Introductory Engineering Stochastic Processes.
Bioengineering at
University of
Illinois at Chicago (www.uic.edu/ucat/catalog/EGBIOEENGR.html)
–
Required Outside of
the College of
Engineering:
General College
Chemistry I and
II, General Physics I (Mechanics), General Physics II (Electricity and
Magnetism)
One from the
following two:
General Physics III
(Modern
Physics), General Physics IV (Heat, Fluids, and Wave Phenomena)
Calculus I, II and
III,
Introduction to Differential Equations, Applied Linear Algebra, English
Composition I, English Composition II, Biology of Cells and Organisms
One from the
following four:
Mendelian and
Molecular Genetics,
Homeostatis: The Physiology of Plants and Animals, Introductory
Biochemistry,
Cell Biology
One from the
following three:
Evolution, Nerve and
Muscle
Physiology, Animal Physiological Systems
Humanities
electives (6 hrs)
Social sciences
electives (6 hrs)
Required in the
College of
Engineering Outside the Major:
Orientation, Statics,
Thermodynamics
One of the
following two:
Introduction to
Programming,
Fortran Programming for Engineers
One from the
following two:
Electrical Circuit
Analysis,
Circuit Analysis
Two courses from
the following
five:
Strength of Materials,
Properties
of Materials, Discrete and Continuous Signals and Systems, Integrated
Circuit
Engineering, Fluid Mechanics
Major Course
Requirements:
Introduction to
Bioengineering,
Modeling Physiological Data and Systems, Senior Design I, Senior Design
II,
Bioinstrumentation & Measurements I, Bioinstrumentation &
Measurements
I Lab, Bioinstrumentation & Measurements II, Bioinstrumentation
&
Measurements II Lab, Biostatistics, Materials in Bioengineering
One from the
following five:
Biomechanics,
Biomedical Imaging,
Introduction to Cell and Tissue Engineering, Neural Engineering I,
Introduction
to Bioinformatics