Bill Briggs
Mathematics
Department
University of Colorado at Denver
Population
genetics is the first area of biology in which rigorous mathematical
models were developed. This work was done in the 1920s by Fisher,
Sewell, and Wright. In this sense, population genetics is to biology
what Newtonian mechanics is to physics. Compared to mathematics models
in mechanics, population genetics is sadly neglected in much of our
teaching. In this talk, we will survey some of the early population
genetics models, which involve difference and differential equations. We
will see how they have been extended to present day models that are
still relevant and not fully understood.
