Headquarters
Storer Hall
Website
climb.ucdavis.edu

CLIMB room window on the first floor of Storer Hall — Photo by RebeccaWan and BryceHathaway

Collaborative Learning at the Interface of Mathematics and Biology (aka CLIMB) is a one-year research program open to all undergraduates majoring in mathematics, statistics, or one of the biological sciences. It is designed to train motivated juniors (you apply as a sophomore ideally, but they don't automatically rule out people who are going to be seniors) in the interdisciplinary study of mathematics and biology. Mathematical biology has increased in popularity over the past several years. Quantitative tools are absolutely necessary in the study of almost all biological questions these days. CLIMB, although fairly new, is becoming well-known for their high pay, almost $15 an hour, higher than any other undergraduate job on campus. This program is very related to the Quantitative Biology and Bioinformatics minor.

Contact [email protected] for more information

Program Expectations

  1. Taking a 4 unit course in fall or spring: BIS 132 or MAT 124.

  2. Taking a 3 unit seminar every quarter of the academic year, where one sees the topics out there in the form of faculty research presentations, works on small scale projects with other CLIMB members, and begins to develop a problem to work on for summer research.

  3. Full time summer research for 10 weeks (40 hours per week).

Application Requirements

  1. 3.0 or higher GPA.

  2. Major in Biological or Mathematical Sciences. (This can be fudged a little, i.e. major in statistics or physics, but you will need to consult with Carole.)

  3. At least one year of calculus.

  4. Agreeing to complete Program Expectations.

  5. Life sciences majors must have completed at least two courses in biology.

  6. Mathematical sciences majors must have completed at least two mathematics courses beyond calculus and also at least one course in biology.

Climb Members on Wiki

  • 2006-2007

VivianTang86

MattHh

MotokiWu

  • 2007-2008

TusharRawat

TaniaG

  • 2008-2009

MiranPark

Past and Present Cohort Research Projects

  • 2007-2008 Cohort - understanding avian influenza spread on a network of farms, taking into account the internal disease dynamics of each farm.
  • 2006-2007 Cohort - understanding the persistence and dynamics of an endemic vernal pool plant species using a meta-population framework. Here we developed our own mathematical model, analyzed it, and used computer programming to simulate the population dynamics for plants in complicated landscapes. In the simulations we found that a few large pools increases persistence as opposed to many small pools.

Call for math majors

Rumor has it, CLIMB needs more math majors to apply!

Add tags