Undergraduate Courses

EEB 310 Evolution, Disease, and Medicine
This course introduces the theory of evolution and its real-world applications to the practice of medicine. Concepts of survival and reproduction defining evolutionary fitness, co-evolution, competition, natural selection, bottleneck effects, adaptation and exaptation will be introduced and applied in the context of discussion of human and animal disease and the medical treatment thereof. The course will cover infectious and non-infectious diseases. We will also extend these concepts past individual-level medicine to population-level public health and consider real-world cases such as antibiotic resistance, vaccination leading to strain replacement, and disease control decisions such as targeting specific populations for vaccination.

EEB 475 Conversational Bio-mathematical Modeling
This course provides students with enough understanding of the basic language of mathematical modeling to be able to read mathematical modeling papers carefully and critically without needing the depth of knowledge required to able to construct competent mathematical models themselves. We cover the purpose and structure of different types of mathematical models, and design and validation methods.

Graduate Courses

MAT 682 Intro to Mathematical Modeling
This course introduces students to the basics of many types of modeling and challenges students to practice the model choice and design phases of modeling, rather than learning how to analyze the models once they are built. We cover continuous analytic methods, numerical solutions to deterministic equations, and stochastic agent-based simulations, and network-based contact models, among others. This course will prepare students to create models of their own for independent research efforts.

Opportunities for Independent Studies for Credit

If you are interested in the type of work we do and in need of course credit, we have been able to create suitable undergraduate independent studies in the past. Contact nina.h.fefferman @ gmail.com at least 4 weeks before the start of the semester in which you would want academic credit to discuss possibilities.

Non-traditional Educational Outreach Activities

Reconnect 2008 on Biosurveillance

DIMACS/COMAP BioMath Modules for High School Teachers

African BioMathematics Initiative: Workshop and Advanced Study Institute on Economic Epidemiology

Mosquito Modeling Made Easy Day at Rutgers Univ. Center for Vector Biology: A Workshop for Mosquito Control Managers in the greater NJ Area