Prof. Hilbert
Learn in mathe
a history of mathematician
Sigal and I have been back in Canada at McMaster University since January 2000. The department of mathematics and statistics, where I am based, now occupies the historic Hamilton Hall, which has recently been completely renovated to become the state-of-the-art James Stewart Centre for Mathematics. The math centre has a very friendly and open atmosphere and there are faculty representing a wide variety of areas of pure and applied mathematics. The Mathematical Biology Research Group currently includes two faculty, four postdocs, three grad students, and several undergrad research associates, and we usually have opportunities at all levels every year.
In addition to an attractive campus that borders beautiful conservation lands, McMaster has a number of features that make it an excellent place to do research in mathematical biology. Within the Faculties of Science, Social Sciences, and Health Science, there are researchers in a variety of departments with a serious interest in collaborating with mathematicians to make progress on biological and medical problems.
Apart from my current collaborations with faculty members in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics, the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, pathology and molecular medicine, and psychology, I have been discussing possible collaborations with faculty in biology, physics and astronomy, geography and geology, and anthropology. The genuine spirit of enthusiastic interdisciplinary collaboration at McMaster is outstanding.
Nearby resources at other universities and institutions in southern Ontario also provide endless opportunities for mathematical biologists. In particular, McMaster is one of the six principal sponsoring universities of the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences in Toronto and a primary member of the SHARCNET high-performance computing consortium. Both Fields and SHARCNET have programs that provide funding for students and postdocs at McMaster.
Before returning to Canada, Sigal and I had often heard that the funding situation was much poorer than in the U.S.; however, we were pleasantly surprised by the real, current situation for new faculty members in Canada. In particular, Canadian universities can leverage very large start-up grants for new faculty from the Canada Foundation for Innovation's New Opportunities Fund. If their research interests include a health connection, faculty members in mathematical biology have more potential funding sources than other applied mathematicians, the key source being the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Editor's note: CIHR is a Next Wave sponsor
Of course, not everyone who is considering a career in mathematical biology has academic research in mind. There are many other possibilities, because there is a great need for mathematically and computationally competent individuals to work on health-related problems in industrial and governmental organizations. (Examples of the latter include Health Canada and Statistics Canada.)
Some of Game
The HiLoTarget dice game is a game for two or more players. There are three versions of the game called Try for High, Go for Low, and Hit the Target. You use three polyhedra dice: A tetrahedron with four sides used to roll 1, 2, 3, or 4 An octahedron with eight sides used to roll 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8. A dodecahedron with 12 sides used to roll 1, 2 ,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12. A turn consists of three dice rolls. Each player does the following: Roll #1: Roll all three dice, choose one of the dice, and record the score on a score sheet. Roll #2: Roll two of the dice, excluding the die chosen on the first roll, choose one of the two dice, and record the score on the score sheet. Roll #3: Roll the die not choosen on the first two rolls, and record the score on the score sheet. We usually play four rounds.
This is the first of several number race games played on a set of "racetracks." In this beginner's game, each player has five racetracks, and puts a "racehorse" on the zero (0) end of each track. Each turn, a player rolls 2D6 (two 6-sided dice) and uses the numbers on the dice to move one or two horses along the track. The object of the game is to get all five horses to twelve (12). Number Race 0 to 12 describes three game variations.
This is one of several number race games. Each player has a game board that consists of four "racetracks," and puts a "racehorse" on the zero (0) end of each track. Each turn a player rolls 2D8 (two 8-sided dice, each numbered 1 to 8) and uses the numbers on the dice to move one or two horses along a track. The object of the game is to move all four horses to the sixteen (16) end of their tracks. Number Race 0 to 16 describes three game variations.
This is one of several number race games. Each player has a game board that consists of five "racetracks," and puts a "racehorse" on the zero (0) end of each track. Each turn a player rolls 2DD (two digit dice, each numbered 0 to 9) and uses the numbers on the dice to move one or two horses along a track. The object of the game is to move all five horses to the eighteen (18) end of their tracks. Number Race 0 to 18 describes three game variations.
This is one of several number race games. Each player has a game board that consists of five "racetracks," and puts a "racehorse" on the zero (0) end of each track. Each turn a player rolls 2D10 (two 10-sided dice, each number 1 to 10) and uses the numbers on the dice to move one or two horses along a track. The object of the game is to move all five horses to the twenty (20) end of their tracks. Number race 0 to 20 describes three game variations.
This is one of several number race games. Each player has a game board that consists of six "racetracks," and puts a "racehorse" on the zero (0) end of each track. Each turn a player rolls 2D12 (two 12-sided dice, each numbered 1 to 12) and uses the numbers on the dice to move one or two horses along a track. The object of the game is to move all five horses to the twenty-four (24) end of their tracks. Number Race 0 to 24 describes three game variations.
Ahoy Number Race players, Here are racetracks, two sets per page, for Number Race 0 to 12, Number Race 0 to 16, Number Race 0 to 18, Number Race 0 to 20, and Number Race 0 to 24.
REVERSE was invented by Peter Lynn Sessions and published in People's Computer Company, May 1973. Begin with a list of numbers and try to put them in order with the smallest number on the left and the largest number on the right, according to the rules of the game. REVERSE describes the standard game and suggests several variations
Grab your favorite dictionary and play WordsWorth. As you play, you'll learn about permutations of words called reverses, palindromes, semordnilaps, and anagrams. Assign a letter score to each letter in the alphabet, a through z, as follows: a = 1, b = 2, c = 3, and so on, up to z = 26. The WordsWorth of a word is the sum of the letter scores of the word's letters. Most of the play in WordsWorth is thinking: knowing words, learning more words, and devising strategies for finding answers. People are well equipped to do this type of play. Some of the play is more mundane: looking up letter scores and adding them to get the WordsWorth of a word. First grade students might start with base-10 blocks as their WordsWorth calculator, and then move on to mental math and paper and pencil math as their addition skills improve by playing WordsWorth.
This resource is part of the Investigation Backpack collection.
