Society for Mathematical Biology

The Society for Mathematical Biology (SMB) is an international association co-founded in 1972 in the United States by George Karreman, Herbert Daniel Landahl and (initially chaired) by Anthony Bartholomay for the furtherance of joint scientific activities between Mathematics and Biology research communities.[1][2] The society publishes the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology,[3][4] as well as the quarterly SMB newsletter.[5]

## History

[edit]

The Society for Mathematical Biology emerged and grew from the earlier school of mathematical biophysics, initiated and supported by the Founder of Mathematical Biology, Nicolas Rashevsky.[6][7] Thus, the roots of SMB go back to the publication in 1939 of the first international journal of mathematical biology, previously entitled "The Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics"—which was founded by Nicolas Rashevsky, and which is currently published by SMB under the name of "Bulletin of Mathematical Biology".[8] Professor Rashevsky also founded in 1969 the non-profit organization "Mathematical Biology, Incorporated"—the precursor of SMB. Another notable member of the University of Chicago school of mathematical biology was Anatol Rapoport whose major interests were in developing basic concepts in the related area of mathematical sociology, who cofounded the Society for General Systems Research and became a president of the latter society in 1965. Herbert D. Landahl was initially also a member of Rashevsky's school of mathematical biology, and became the second president of SMB in the 1980s; both Herbert Landahl and Robert Rosen from Rashevsky's research group were focused on dynamical systems approaches to complex systems biology, with the latter researcher becoming in 1980 the president of the Society for General Systems Research.

## Leadership

[edit]

The Society for Mathematical Biology is governed by its Officers and Board of Directors, elected by the membership. Current SMB President is Jane Heffernan (York University), and Past-President serving as vice president is Heiko Enderling (Moffitt Cancer Center). SMB secretary is Jon Forde (Hobart and William Smith Colleges), and treasurer is Stanca Ciupe (Virginia Tech). The current Board of Directors is composed of Ruth Baker (University of Oxford), Padmini Rangamani (University of California San Diego), Amina Eladdadi (The College of St Rose), Peter Kim (The University of Sydney), Robyn Araujo (Queensland University of Technology), and Amber Smith (University of Tennessee Health Science Center).

SMB presidents  Years of service  | President  | Affiliation

|
|

1973-1981  | George Karreman | University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
1981-1983  | Herbert Landahl  | University of California, San Francisco
1983-1985  | John Stephenson  | National Heart Institute, National Institutes of Health
1985-1987  | John Jacquez  | University of Michigan Medical School
1987-1989  | Simon Levin | Cornell University
1989-1991  | Stuart Kauffman | Santa Fe Institute
1991-1993  | Alan Perelson  | Los Alamos National Laboratory
1993-1995  | John J. Tyson | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
1995-1997  | Leah Edelstein-Keshet  | University of British Columbia
1997-1999  | Leon Glass  | McGill University
1999-2001  | Alan Hastings | University of California, Davis
2001-2003  | Mark Lewis  | University of Alberta
2003-2005  | Lou Gross  | University of Tennessee at Knoxville
2005-2007  | Mark Chaplain  | University of Dundee
2007-2009  | Avner Friedman | Ohio State University
2009-2011  | Michael Mackey  | McGill University
2011-2013  | Gerde de Vries  | University of Alberta
2013-2015  | Fred Adler  | University of Utah
2015-2017  | Santiago Schnell | University of Michigan Medical School
2017-2019  | Denise Kirschner | University of Michigan Medical School
2019-2021  | Alexander Anderson  | Moffitt Cancer Center
2021-2023  | Heiko Enderling | Moffitt Cancer Center
2023-2025  | Jane Heffernan | York University

## Research and educational activities

[edit]

Bulletin of Mathematical BiologyDiscipline| Mathematical biology

|

Language| English
Edited by| Matthew Simpson
Publication details

Former name(s)

Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics

History| 1939–present
Publisher|

Springer Science+Business Media on behalf of the Society for Mathematical Biology

Frequency| Monthly
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4 (alt) * Bluebook (alt)
NLM (alt) * MathSciNet (alt )
ISO 4| Bull. Math. Biol.
Indexing
CODEN (alt * alt2) * JSTOR (alt) * LCCN (alt)
MIAR * NLM (alt) * Scopus

Bulletin of Mathematical Biology

CODEN| BMTBAP
ISSN| 0092-8240 (print)
1522-9602 (web)

LCCN| 75643459
OCLC no.| 02241208

Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics

ISSN| 0007-4985

Links

* Journal homepage

In addition to its research and news publications, the society supports education in: mathematical biology, mathematical biophysics, complex systems biology and theoretical biology through sponsorship of several topic-focused graduate and postdoctoral courses. To encourage and stimulate young researchers in this relatively new and rapidly developing field of mathematical biology, the society awards several prizes, as well as lists regularly new open international opportunities for researchers and students in this field.[9]

### Bulletin of Mathematical Biology

[edit]

The society publishes the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology. The Bulletin was founded by Dr. Nicolas Rashevsky, who is generally recognized as the founder of the first organized group in mathematical biology in the world. The journal was originally published as the Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics, and quickly became the classical journal in general mathematical biology and served as the principal natural publication outlet for the majority of mathematical biologists. Many classical papers have appeared in the Bulletin, and several of these are familiar to biologists. It has become an important avenue for the exchange and transmission of new ideas and approaches to biological problems and incorporates both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of mathematical models and characterizations of biological processes and systems.[10]

Dr. Rashevsky remained the editor of the Bulletin until his death on January 16, 1972.

Bulletin of Mathematical Biology Editor-in-Chief  Years of service  | Editor  | Affiliation

|
|

1939-1972  | Nicolas Rashevsky  | University of Chicago

University of Michigan

1972-1981  | Herbert Landahl  | University of California, San Francisco
1982-1986  | Hugo M. Martinez  | University of California, San Francisco
1986-2001  | Lee A. Siegel  | Weizmann Institute
2002-2015  | Philip Maini  | University of Oxford
2016 - 2022  | Alan Hastings

Reinhard Laubenbacher

| University of California, Davis

University of Connecticut Health

2022–present  | Matthew Simpson  | Queensland University of Technology

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Conrad, Michael (September 1996). "SMB - "Childhood, Boyhood, Youth."". Society for Mathematical Biology Newsletter. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
2. ^ http://www.smb.org/governance/history.shtml History of SMB
3. ^ "Bulletin of Mathematical Biology". Springer New York. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
4. ^ Maini, P.; Schnell, S.; Jolliffe, S. (2004). "Bulletin of mathematical biology—facts, figures and comparisons" (PDF). Bulletin of Mathematical Biology. 66 (4): 595–603\. doi:10.1016/j.bulm.2004.03.003. PMID 15210308. S2CID 10715399.595-603&rft.date=2004&rft_id=https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:10715399#id-name=S2CID&rft_id=info:pmid/15210308&rft_id=info:doi/10.1016/j.bulm.2004.03.003&rft.aulast=Maini&rft.aufirst=P.&rft.au=Schnell,+S.&rft.au=Jolliffe,+S.&rft_id=http://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/maini/PKM%20publications/170.pdf&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Society+for+Mathematical+Biology" class="Z3988">
5. ^ http://www.smb.org/publications/index.shtml SMB Publications
6. ^ Rosen, Robert. 1972. "Tribute to Nicolas Rashevsky" 1899-1972. Progress in Theoretical Biology 2.
7. ^ Conrad, Michael (September 1996). "SMB - CHILDHOOD, BOYHOOD, YOUTH". Society for Mathematical Biology Newsletter. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
8. ^ "Announcement". Bulletin of Mathematical Biology. 35 (1–2): 273. 1973. doi:10.1007/BF02558813.1–2&rft.pages=273&rft.date=1973&rft_id=info:doi/10.1007/BF02558813&rft_id=https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF02558813&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Society+for+Mathematical+Biology" class="Z3988">
9. ^ http://www.smb.org/prizes/index.shtml Archived 2009-05-15 at the Wayback Machine SMB Mathematical Biology Prize Awards
10. ^ Maini, M; Schnell, S; Jolliffe, S (July 2004). "Bulletin of mathematical biology-facts, figures and comparisons". Bulletin of Mathematical Biology. 66 (4): 595–603\. doi:10.1016/j.bulm.2004.03.003. PMID 15210308. S2CID 10715399.595-603&rft.date=2004-07&rft_id=https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:10715399#id-name=S2CID&rft_id=info:pmid/15210308&rft_id=info:doi/10.1016/j.bulm.2004.03.003&rft.aulast=Maini&rft.aufirst=M&rft.au=Schnell,+S&rft.au=Jolliffe,+S&rft_id=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c8cac673-26f4-41d5-bb02-ef82b7e34253&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Society+for+Mathematical+Biology" class="Z3988">

## Further reading

[edit]

* Nicolas Rashevsky. 1965. The Representation of Organisms in Terms of Predicates, Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 27: 477-491.
* Nicolas Rashevsky. 1969, Outline of a Unified Approach to Physics, Biology and Sociology., Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 31: 159-198.
* Elsasser, M.W.: 1981, A Form of Logic Suited for Biology., In: Robert, Rosen, ed., Progress in Theoretical Biology, Volume 6, Academic Press, New York and London, pp. 23–62.
* Rosen, R. 1958a, A Relational Theory of Biological Systems., Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 20: 245-260.
* Rosen, R. 1958b, The Representation of Biological Systems from the Standpoint of the Theory of Categories., Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 20: 317-341.
* Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts, "A Logical Calculus of Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity", 1943, Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 5:115-133.
* Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts, "On how we know universals: The perception of auditory and visual forms", 1947, Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 9:127-147.
* Santiago Schnell, Ramon Grima and Philip K. Maini. 2007. Multiscale modeling in biology. American Scientist 95: 134–142.

## External links

[edit]

* The Society for Mathematical Biology
* Bulletin of Mathematical Biology
* "In Memory of George Karreman."--the first SMB President, by Paul De Weer.
* SMB home page
* IFSR Home page of "The International Federation for Systems Research" (IFSR)
* European Society for Mathematical and Theoretical Biology (ESMTB)
* The Centre for Mathematical Biology (CMB) at the University of Oxford

* v
* t
* e

Systems science

System
types|

* Art
* Biological
* Complex
* Coupled human–environment
* Ecological
* Economic
* Information
* Multi-agent
* Nervous
* Recommender
* Social

Concepts|

* Doubling time
* Leverage points
* Limiting factor
* Negative feedback
* Positive feedback

Theoretical
fields|

* Control theory
* Cybernetics
* Earth system science
* Living systems
* Sociotechnical system
* Systemics
* Urban metabolism
* World-systems theory

* Analysis
* Biology
* Dynamics
* Ecology
* Engineering
* Neuroscience
* Pharmacology
* Philosophy
* Psychology
* Theory (Systems thinking)

Scientists|

* Russell L. Ackoff
* Victor Aladjev
* William Ross Ashby
* Ruzena Bajcsy
* Béla H. Bánáthy
* Gregory Bateson
* Anthony Stafford Beer
* Richard E. Bellman
* Ludwig von Bertalanffy
* Margaret Boden
* Alexander Bogdanov
* Kenneth E. Boulding
* Murray Bowen
* Kathleen Carley
* Mary Cartwright
* C. West Churchman
* Manfred Clynes
* George Dantzig
* Edsger W. Dijkstra
* Fred Emery
* Heinz von Foerster
* Stephanie Forrest
* Jay Wright Forrester
* Barbara Grosz
* Charles A. S. Hall
* Mike Jackson
* Lydia Kavraki
* James J. Kay
* Faina M. Kirillova
* George Klir
* Allenna Leonard
* Edward Norton Lorenz
* Niklas Luhmann
* Humberto Maturana
* Margaret Mead
* Donella Meadows
* Mihajlo D. Mesarovic
* James Grier Miller
* Radhika Nagpal
* Howard T. Odum
* Talcott Parsons
* Ilya Prigogine
* Qian Xuesen
* Anatol Rapoport
* John Seddon
* Peter Senge
* Claude Shannon
* Katia Sycara
* Eric Trist
* Francisco Varela
* Manuela M. Veloso
* Kevin Warwick
* Norbert Wiener
* Jennifer Wilby
* Anthony Wilden

Applications|

* Systems theory in anthropology
* Systems theory in archaeology
* Systems theory in political science

Organizations|

* List
* Principia Cybernetica

* Category
* Portal
* Commons

* v
* t
* e

Subfields of and cyberneticians involved in cybernetics

Subfields|

* Artificial intelligence
* Biological cybernetics
* Biomedical cybernetics
* Biorobotics
* Biosemiotics
* Neurocybernetics
* Catastrophe theory
* Computational neuroscience
* Connectionism
* Control theory
* Conversation theory
* Cybernetics in the Soviet Union
* Decision theory
* Emergence
* Engineering cybernetics
* Homeostasis
* Information theory
* Management cybernetics
* Medical cybernetics
* Second-order cybernetics
* Cybersemiotics
* Sociocybernetics
* Synergetics

Cyberneticians|

* Alexander Lerner
* Alexey Lyapunov
* Alfred Radcliffe-Brown
* Allenna Leonard
* Anthony Wilden
* Buckminster Fuller
* Charles François
* Genevieve Bell
* Margaret Boden
* Claude Bernard
* Cliff Joslyn
* Erich von Holst
* Ernst von Glasersfeld
* Francis Heylighen
* Francisco Varela
* Frederic Vester
* Charles Geoffrey Vickers
* Gordon Pask
* Gordon S. Brown
* Gregory Bateson
* Heinz von Foerster
* Humberto Maturana
* I. A. Richards
* Igor Aleksander
* Jacque Fresco
* Jakob von Uexküll
* Jason Jixuan Hu
* Jay Wright Forrester
* Jennifer Wilby
* John N. Warfield
* Kevin Warwick
* Ludwig von Bertalanffy
* Maleyka Abbaszadeh
* Manfred Clynes
* Margaret Mead
* Marian Mazur
* N. Katherine Hayles
* Natalia Bekhtereva
* Niklas Luhmann
* Norbert Wiener
* Pyotr Grigorenko
* Qian Xuesen
* Ranulph Glanville
* Robert Trappl
* Sergei P. Kurdyumov
* Anthony Stafford Beer
* Stuart Kauffman
* Stuart Umpleby
* Talcott Parsons
* Ulla Mitzdorf
* Valentin Turchin
* Valentin Braitenberg
* William Ross Ashby
* Walter Bradford Cannon
* Walter Pitts
* Warren McCulloch
* William Grey Walter

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* United States
* Czech Republic
* Israel

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template