Offered By	ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, ANU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science, ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU College of Business and Economics, and ANU College of Law
Academic Contact	Dr Elizabeth Ormerod (Mathematics)
Areas of Interest	Biology and Mathematics

The intention of the major is to attract students with good quantitative skills into biology, and for these students to keep a quantitative stream going through to third year. The 2003 report from the US National Research Council, the Board on Life Sciences, entitled Undergraduate Biology Education for Future Research Biologists, emphasises and the importance of building a strong foundation in mathematics and the physical and information sciences to prepare students for research that is increasingly interdisciplinary in character (Recommendation 1). The importance of mathematics, statistics, computer science, and the physical sciences for future researchers in biology is the fundamental emphasis of this report.

Students doing the major will need in first year to complete BIOL1003, BIOL1004, two courses in mathematics, normally two in chemistry because of biology prerequisites and co-requisites, and are strongly urged to do physics or computer science, even though a consequence is that they would not then do other first biology courses. Students will be required to complete the second year course MATH2307 Bioinformatics and Biological Modelling and will study some mathematics and biology through to third year. Students are strongly encouraged to do further biology and mathematics courses and will often take out a second major emphasising one of these directions.

Requirements

This major will consist of a minimum of 42 units of courses including:

(a) MATH2307 Bioinformatics and Biological Modelling

(b) three of the following, including at least one BIOL course:

• BIOL2131 Population Ecology
• BIOL2151 Introductory Genetics
• BIOL2161 Genes: Replication and Expression
• BIOL2171 Biochemistry and Nutrition
• STAT2001 Introductory Mathematical Statistics
• MATH2305 Differential Equations and Applications
• MATH2405 Maths Methods 1 Honours: Ordinary Differential Equations and Advanced Vector Calculus 
• MATH2306 Partial Differential Equations and Applications
• MATH2406 Maths Methods 2 Honours: Partial Differential Equations, Fourier Analysis and Complex Analysis
• MATH3511 Scientific Computing 
• STAT2001 Introductory Mathematical Statistics

(c) three of the following, including at least one BIOL or ENVS course, and at least one MATH course:

• BIOL3132 Field Studies in Behavioural Ecology
• BIOL3151 Population Genetics
• BIOL3153 Conservation Biology
• BIOL3157 Advanced Genetics and Bioinformatics
• BIOL3161 Genomics and Its Applications
• MATH3062 Fractal Geometry and Chaotic Dynamics
• MATH3133 Environmental Modelling and Integrated Assessment
• MATH3501 Scientific and Industrial Modelling
• MATH3511 Scientific Computing
• MATH3512 Matrix Computations and Optimisation
• MATH3353 Topics in Bioinformatics Honours

First Year course advice

MATH1013/1115, MATH1014/1116, BIOL1003, BIOL1004, CHEM1101and CHEM1201 are highly recommended.

The information published on the Study at ANU 2011 website applies to the 2011 academic year only. All information provided on this website replaces the information contained in the Study at ANU 2010 website.