This will be the third edition of this event, organised by Odo Diekmann, Hans Heesterbeek, Fleur Kelpin and Bob Kooi. The previous schools in January 1996 and January 1998 each attracted more than 50 PhD-students from a broad range of countries and population biological subjects. Reports by participants about these schools can be found in the BioMathematical Newsletter 13 and BMN 17.
As in the previous editions we emphasise the word `school' and aim to give PhD students in population biology a good understanding of the way mathematics is applied to study problems in their field as well as a thorough background in relevant deterministic and stochastic mathematical techniques. Five lecturers who will each give a series of 4 or 5 lectures. These lecture series start at an elementary level and connect to recent research topics towards the end. Basic techniques receive attention, and lecture notes accompany the presentation.
In addition we retain a successful part of the 1996 and 1998 editions in that participants team up in small groups around one or two papers of their choice from a list we provide. The papers cover the same areas as the lecture topics but go beyond the basic material. We look for stimulating and challenging papers that are allowed to be more difficult than usual, provided they have a rewarding message once you understand them. The groups then study these papers together during several periods of a few hours scattered throughout the week (the idea being that five know more than one and one learns to read more advanced papers). On Saturday one person from each group then gives a short presentation about the findings, ideas, criticism, comments etc.
The speakers are:
| Fred Adler | ecology and evolution |
| Rob de Boer | immunology, virology |
| Bas Kooijman | dynamic energy budgets, ecotoxicology |
| Roger Nisbet | stage structured populations, numerics and applications |
| Horst Thieme | mathematics of physiologically structured population models |
More details will be announced in the next issue of the newsletter. Registration forms will become available in early 1999. If you wish to be put on a preliminary list of participants, please send an e-mail with your details (including area of research) to Fleur Kelpin at the address below. There is a limit of 55 participants.
Information: Fleur
Kelpin, e-mail: fleur@bio.vu.nl Theoretical Biology, Vrije
Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1087, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
See also http://www.bio.vu.nl/thb/users/nls