The Janet L. Andersen prize is awarded annually at MAA MathFest by BIO SIGMAA "for excellence in mathematical and/or computational biology exhibited in a presentation by an undergraduate student." The first Janet L. Andersen Prize was awarded at the MathFest in San Jose and the prize will continue to be awarded annually at the MAA's MathFest.

At the first awarding of this prize in 2007, BIO SIGMAA officer Jennifer Galovich said: "Until her untimely death in November 2005, Janet L. Andersen was Professor of mathematics at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. She joined the Hope faculty in 1991 after completing her master's and doctoral work in algebraic geometry at the University of Minnesota.

Janet was a beloved and dedicated teacher of mathematics and served the profession in myriad ways, from her role as director of the Pew MidStates Science and Mathematics Consortium to her service as chair of the MAA's committee on the teaching of undergraduate mathematics.

Half a dozen years ago or so Janet became actively interested in mathematical biology, and was Principal Investigator for an NSF grant to develop a mathematical biology course, which she then taught at Hope College several times. In conjunction with that course, she mentored many student undergraduate research projects. Through activities of the BioQUEST curriculum consortium, the Society for Mathematical Biology and in many other ways, she was untiring in her efforts to promote the inclusion of mathematics in biology education (and vice versa) and encouraged broad collaboration among mathematicians and biologists in both research and teaching.

The main purpose of BioSIGMAA is to support activities that will enhance the exchange of ideas and access to educational opportunities among undergraduates and undergraduate faculty in the fields of mathematical and computational biology, a goal that Janet would certainly have endorsed. Tonight we honor her memory with a prize for a student presentation exhibiting excellence in that area."

Past Winners of the Janet L. Anderson Prize

2009 Winners: Yasmeen Hussain (University of Utah) and the duo of Robert Castellano (SUNY Stony Brook) and Derek Olson (Drake)

Yasmeen is an honors mathematics major and music minor. Her project, “Coagulation: the Fifth Factor” studies blood clotting using differential equations. In direct comparison to results of biological research on clotting factor V, Yasmeen found that the controversial results from clinical trials are not supported by the mathematical model of coagulation.

Learn more about Yasmeen in her own words:

I was born in Chicago, raised in Connecticut, and moved to Utah during high school. I became interested in pure mathematics during high school, but quickly switched to applied mathematics in my first year of college at the University of Utah. I have been working with Prof.Fogelson since spring semester of freshman year, and plan to continue working on math biology problems with him. I will be graduating from the U of U this May with an honors math major, a music minor, and a service-learning designation. Post-graduation plans are up in the air right now- there are so many possibilities!

Heather's research mentor for this project was Prof. Aaron Fogelson at the University of Utah.

Robert’s and Derek’s project, “Analysis of Type I Diabetes with Wavelets” As the title indicates, the two applied wavelets and other mathematical tools to blood glucose time series to deepen understanding of this serious disease:

Robert says:

I am from Long Island, NY and am a Junior at Stony Brook University, also on Long Island. Mathematics has always interested me, with most of my undergraduate education focusing on pure mathematics. This love for math led me to attend the Grand Valley State University Research Experience for Undergraduate Program, which provided me with my first opportunity to do research. It is here that I was introduced to applied mathematics and worked with wavelets and diabetes. The project was very interesting and exposed me to the world of applied mathematics. I plan on going to graduate school, though I am not sure whether in pure or applied mathematics.

Derek says:

I'm from Rose Creek, Minnesota and attend college at Drake University in Des Moines, IA. I started as a history major and didn't become seriously interested in mathematics until taking calculus in college. The subtleties of math (linear algebra in particular) soon won me over, and I am now a mathematics and computer science double major. What I found especially intriguing about our project were the numerous mathematical tools that we could use to analyze diabetes data—wavelets, clustering algorithms, statistics, etc. I’ll be graduating this fall and plan on attending graduate school in mathematics after that.

Robert’s and Derek’s research mentor for this project was Prof. Edward Aboufadel through the REU at Grand Valley State University.

2008 Winners: Heather Akerson (College of St. Benedict) and Deena Hannoun (James Madison University)

Heather is a mathematics major and computer science minor. Her project was “Statistics on RNA Secondary Structures”. She examined several different types of RNA to determine if Willenbring’s B statistic was a good discriminator. Based on her samples, it appears that certain classes of RNA have typical values of B.

Learn more about Heather in her own words:

I’m originally from El Paso, TX but I grew up in Cambridge, MN. And that’s where I got into mathematics. I was put in the advanced classes during high school and I really liked it. Originally, I planned on going into engineering when I got into college (silly me) but soon discovered that plain ol’ math was way better and that’s where I’m at now. Once I graduate, I’m not entirely what I’ll be doing. I’ll either be going to grad school, becoming an actuary, or working with secret things at the NSA (which would be awesome).

Heather's research mentor for this project was Prof. Jennifer Galovich at the College of St. Benedict.

Deena’s project was “An Optimal Energy Allocation Strategy for Multiple Constrained Resources”. She used difference equations to model a population with overlapping generations and competing subpopulations. The goal was to determine how such a population could best allocate its energy to obtain both food and shelter when those resources are limited.

Learn more about Deena in her own words:

I am from McGaheysville, Virginia. I first became interested in mathematics as a high school sophomore while taking AB calculus. I decided to major in math after attending the Virginia Governor's School for Science and Mathematics after the summer of my sophomore year in high school. The thing I found most appealing about mathematics was the many varied opportunities for study. I liked that at JMU, I could tailor my undergraduate career to either pure mathematics, applied mathematics, or statistics. I decided to focus my undergraduate studies in the direction of applied mathematics after beginning a project with Dr. Anthony Tongen and completing JMU's Computer and Numerical Algorithms course. My research interests include mathematical biology and numerical ordinary differential equations. I am currently working on narrowing my list of potential graduate schools as I will soon begin applying to applied mathematics PhD programs.

Deena's research mentors for this project were Prof. Anthony Tongen and Prof. Brian Walton at James Madison University.

2007 Winner: Andrew Matteson (Texas A&M)

Andrew was awarded this prize for his work on "An Enzyme Kinetic Model of Tumor Dormancy." Andrew is a native Texan from Amarillo. He reports that he first became interested in abstract mathematics in third grade when he was fortunate to have a mentor who de-emphasized "practical knowledge" in favor of questions without answers (the most valuable type) and fostered a belief that everything should be possible and knowable. His interest in mathematical biology stems from a research methods course he took during his freshman year. He says, "I believe there is something beautiful about pattern formation from a disordered state. It is this idea that touches each of my projects and gives me real pleasure in this work."

Outside of mathematics, Andrew is active in anusara style yoga and lindy hop swing dancing, and loves spending time outdoors. He has recently taken on the project of reading the thirteen volumes of Will Durant's Story of Civilization, and reports that he has "about 6000 years to go." Andrew will graduate from Texas A&M in 2008 and plans graduate study in mathematical biology.

Andrew's research experience was mentored by Prof. Jay Walton at Texas A&M. Update (15 August 2008): Andrew is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Computational Biology and Applied Mathematics at NYU. His first paper, "An Enzyme Kinetic Model of Blood Island Formation",is in press with The Journal of Mathematical Medicine and Biology!

Copyright © 2007 BIO SIGMAA (Special Interest Group on Mathematical and Computational Biology of the Mathematical Association of America)

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