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MBI Diversity Plan

The MBI diversity mission is to help shape the mathematical biology community in a way that represents the diversity of our society. Historically, women, African-Americans, Hispanics, Native American, and Alaskan Natives have been underrepresented in the mathematical biology community. MBI will work at two levels. First, it is MBI policy that each of its programs should actively seek diversity among its participants in gender and ethnicity. Second, MBI will sponsor activities that promote mathematical biology and its opportunities in the academic community. To be most effective, these activities should reach the undergraduate and pre-college levels, and contribute to increasing the diversity of future mathematical biologists. The Diversity Committee helps MBI to carry out this mission.

Specifically, MBI will build and maintain diversity by the following.

  1. Boards and Advisors: Ensure representation of underrepresented groups among the Directors, the Board of Trustees, the Scientific Advisory Committee, and the Local Scientific Advisory Committee.
  2. Science Workshops and Emphasis Programs: Include members of underrepresented groups as members of emphasis year and workshop organizing committees and ensure broad representation among workshop participants.
  3. Training of Younger Scientists: Ensure broad representation among postdoctoral fellows and build exposure of younger scientists to mathematical biology.
  4. Awareness Workshops: Periodically host workshops on Opportunities in Mathematical Biology for Underrepresented Groups. The first of these workshops occurred in 2007: see http://www.mbi.ohio-state.edu/publications/annual/ar0607.pdf.

In addition, MBI will pursue the following strategies:

  1. Participate in meetings of minority scientists, such as the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) and the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP), to provide information about MBI, recruit participants to MBI activities, and inform young scientists about opportunities in mathematical biology.
  2. Build relations with academic institutions having strong minority enrollments.
  3. Advertise MBI programs both broadly and to targeted audiences, including meetings of mathematical biology societies and minority-serving science societies.
  4. Evaluate the implementation of the MBI diversity plan annually.

Current Members

  • Erika Camacho, Mathematical & Natural Sciences Division, Arizona State University (12/31/14)
  • Ricardo Cortez, Mathematics Department, Tulane University (12/31/15)
  • Helen Chamberlin, Department of Molecular Genetics, The Ohio State University (ex-officio)
  • Holly D. Gaff, Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University (12/31/15)
  • Maeve McCarthy, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Murray State University 12/31/13)
  • Kim Weems, Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University (12/31/14)
  • Aziz Yakubu, Department of Mathematics, Howard University (12/31/13)

Past Members

  • Carlos Castillo-Chavez, Regents Professor, Arizona State University (2009-2012)
  • Joan Herbers, Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University (2009-2012)
  • Yi Li, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Wright State University (2009-2012)
  • Trachette L. Jackson, Department of Mathematics, University of Michigan (2009-2012)

MBI Conference Award Winners