YSU Grant to help blend math and biology

Students will study in San Salvador Island, Bahamas.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The National Science Foundation has awarded a $100,000 grant to Youngstown State University to bring together students and faculty from the biology and math departments.
The two-year grant, one of 24 awarded to universities and colleges in the nation, will give mathematics and biology students the opportunity to work together and learn from one another, YSU faculty said.
An increasing number of universities are developing bio-mathematics courses, as well as full-blown programs in the emerging discipline, said Thomas Smotzer, YSU associate professor of math. He said he hopes the courses some day become a standard part of the course offerings at YSU.
Under the grant, YSU has developed a course in field ecology open to both biology and math majors. Students will work in teams designing aquatic ecology experiments before an intensive field trip to San Salvador Island, Bahamas, where they will implement their plans.
The grant also will allow six undergraduate students at YSU to work on intensive research projects this summer. Math and biology students will be teamed up to work on interdisciplinary research projects.
Focus of projects
Carl Johnston, assistant professor of biology at YSU, said the projects will focus on research already being conducted by YSU faculty, including environmental and ecological monitoring of the Mahoning River and in the Zoar Valley in New York.
In addition, Smotzer said YSU plans to launch two new courses in bio-mathematics in the 2004-05 academic year. The courses may be team-taught by biology and math faculty members.
Other faculty members involved in the grant are Tom Diggins of biology and George Yates, Angela Spalsbury and Nate Ritchey of mathematics.
The grant, which falls under NSF's Interdisciplinary Training for Undergraduates in Biological and Mathematical Sciences program, is a follow up to an initial grant of $400,000 that YSU received under the NSF's Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics Scholarship program. The initial grant provides scholarships for academically talented, minority and financially needy students.