By Will Lloyd

Biology and math merge in new curriculum

By: Liang Liang

Posted: 9/29/04

The National Science Foundation granted the College of Science $1.25 million to develop an interdisciplinary undergraduate program at Texas A&M that will incorporate biology with mathematics and statistics.

The 1,144 undergraduate students in the Department of Biology are required to only take basic mathematical classes. Students on the biology track in the integrated program will be required to have 23 credits in mathematics, six credits in statistics and 104 credits in biology, chemistry and genetics. Students on the mathematics track will need 61 credits in mathematics, six credits in statistics and 60 credits in biology and the biology-related sciences.

Dean of the College of Science Dr. H. Joseph Newton said the Interdisciplinary Training for Undergraduates in Biological & Mathematical Sciences (UBM) program is a four-year experiment and A&M is one of five places chosen to conduct the experiment.

"Biology is becoming more and more mathematical, (although) it historically had been the least mathematical," Newton said. "For example, the students in biology were not required to take calculus. Now it has changed. Research projects like the Gene Project indicate a trend for biology majors to know about math."

The program is designed to recruit 10 students to concentrate on biology with a minor in mathematics and 10 students to concentrate on mathematics with a minor in biology, but has recruited only 12 students this fall.

Adam Stevenson, a senior computer engineering major, has been studying in the program since last December, even before it officially started.

"I came to the program because it integrates computer science with math and biology. My goal is to be able to use mathematics to learn and understand concepts that cannot be understood without mathematics because of their abstract nature," Stevenson said. "Mathematics allows us to reduce complex biological problems into simple equations and to gain further insight into those problems that were not originally noticeable."

Having studied in the program for nine months, Stevenson said he is planning to go to graduate school to pursue an advanced degree in biology.

Some undergraduate students in biology who are not involved in the integrated program expressed different points of view.

"I think biology and mathematics are different things. I don't see much mathematics involved in biology. The program should be designed as a graduate program which is more geared toward research," said Barry Hamilton, a senior biology major.

Clayton Smith, who is also a senior biology major, said math is not essential to biology.

"The more you know about math the more theory it becomes. I took calculus I and II. They didn't help a lot," Smith said.

Dr. Vincent M. Cassone, head of the biology department is the principal initiator of the UBM program. He said the program was created for undergraduates because there has been an increasing need for research in biology undergraduate programs.

"(The opposing opinion) speaks volumes for the need for this program, because nothing I do in my laboratory or in my classes can be understood completely without a mathematical basis," Cassone said. "We need to train students to think biological questions from mathematical perspective. And we hope our students will go on and go to the graduate schools and become professional scientists taking advantage of what they learn in this program."

Newton said the National Science Foundation is hoping to permanently change the current biological curricula in the U.S. universities, adding more mathematical emphasis in biology, as biology increasingly involves mathematics.

"The potential here is very real. We are excited about the program from both biological and mathematical stand points. We expect more students will come in down the main stream," said Dr. Albert Boggess, head of the Department of Mathematics.