Annual Rowlee Lecture to address math's role in understanding nature

            What role do mathematical models play in understanding the territories of wolves and coyotes? Mark Lewis, director for the Centre for Mathematical Biology at the University of Alberta, will explore that question April 13 when he presents the 16th annual Howard Rowlee Lecture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The public is welcome to attend.

            Lewis' lecture, "Mathematical Models for Carnivore Territories," will begin at 4 p.m. in 115 Avery Hall, located directly southeast of Memorial Stadium. In his talk, he will show how biologically-based mechanistic rules can be put into a mathematical model that predicts the process of territorial formation as individuals create and respond to scent marks. Lewis says scent marks provide important cues on the use of space. A reception precedes the lecture at 3:15 p.m. in 348 Avery Hall.

            Besides his directorship, Lewis holds the title of senior Canada research chair in mathematical biology at Alberta. Known for his research in mathematical ecology, Lewis works on biological problems like the modeling of territorial pattern formation in wolves, predicting population spread in biological invasions, calculating the best strategies for biocontrol, and assessing how habitat fragmentation affects species survival.

            He finished his doctorate at Oxford University in mathematical biology in 1990. His recent awards and grants include the CRM-Fields-PIMS Prize, regarded as a premier mathematics prize in Canada; a Lee Segel Prize for best original research paper published in the Bulletin of Math Biology; and an American Society of Naturalists Presidential Award for best paper published in The American Naturalist.

            To learn more about Lewis and the lecture, visit http://go.unl.edu/rowlee.

            The Rowlee Lecture is part of the Conference on Mathematical Ecology on April 14 and 15 at UNL, which will gather distinguished researchers to present current research in population dynamics. For more on the conference, visit http://go.unl.edu/8o3.

Writer: Jean Ortiz Jones, University Communications, 402-472-8320