Biomathematics and Related Computational Problems

Biomathematics emerged and rapidly grew as an independent discipline in the late sixties as scientists with various backgrounds in the mathematical, biological and physical sciences gathered together to form Departments and Institutes centered around this discipline that many at that time felt should fall between the cracks of legitimate science. For various reasons some of these new institutions vanished in the mid-seventies, particularly in the U. S. , the main reason for their demise being economic. Nevertheless, good biomathematical so that the range research has been ceaselessly carried on by numerous workers worldwide of this activity appears now as truly impressive: from useful and effective mathematical statements about problems that are firmly rooted in the ’wet’ reality of biology to deep theoretical investigations on outstanding basic questions. It is also interesting to take note that some ideas and theories set forth by ’paleo-biomathematicians’ almost a quarter of century ago are now becoming highly appreciated also by scientists engaged in quite different research fields. For instance, neural nets is the hot topic in computer science these days! Well aware of the growing interest in this relatively new field, years back I organized a small workshop on Biomathematics: Current Status and Future Perspectives which was held at the University of Salerno during the middle of April, 1980.