====== Introduction to Population Biology ======


[[http://professores.ift.unesp.br/roberto.kraenkel/|Roberto Kraenkel]]

Institute for Theoretical Physics, UNESP, São Paulo, Brazil

===== Outline =====

This is a course on basic population biology, with applications to ecology and
epidemiology. You will find the previous year's lectures on
[[http://www.ictp-saifr.org/mathbio2]] and in the links in the section "Past schools" in the sidebar.

==== Topics ====
Follow the links for handouts and supplementary material:

  - [[Single Species]]
  - [[Predation]]
  - [[Competition]]
  - [[Epidemics]]
  - [[Spatial Ecology]]
  - [[Alternative States]]


===== Suggested Readings =====

=== If you have a background in physics or mathematics ===

J. Murray : Mathematical Biology I ( Springer, 2002), chapters 1, 3, 10 and 11.

N. F. Britton, Essential Mathematical Biology (Springer,2003).

=== If you have a background in biology ===

N. J. Gotelli, A Primer of Ecology (Sinauer, 2001, third edition), chapters 1, 2, 5 and 6 (very basic)

[[http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7436.html|Complex Population Dynamics]]. Peter Turchin, Princeton Univ Press,  2003. (basic + more advanced topics)

=== If you think that you need to revise your knowledge on calculus, you may want to take a look at ===

S. P. Otto and T. Day, A Biologist’s Guide to Mathematical Modeling in Ecology and Evolution (Princeton U. Press, 2007).

Matthiopoulos, J. (2011). How to be a quantitative ecologist: the'A to R'of green mathematics and statistics. John Wiley & Sons.

===Model fitting===

  * [[https://kingaa.github.io/pomp/|Partially-observed Markov Processes]] : a statistical formalism to fit systems of stochastic differential equations to empirical data.

===History and epistemology===

Kingsland, S. 1995. Modeling nature-Episodes in the history of population ecology. The Chicago University Press, Chicago.

Keller, E. F. 2009. Making sense of life: Explaining biological development with models, metaphors, and machines. Harvard University Press.

== Wigner on unreasonable efectiveness of math ==
  * [[https://dtrinkle.matse.illinois.edu/_media/unreasonable-effectiveness-cpam1960.pdf|Original paper]]
  * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unreasonable_Effectiveness_of_Mathematics_in_the_Natural_Sciences|in Wikipedia]]
  * [[http://www.christopherxjjensen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Ginzburg-et-al-2007.pdf|Aiming the “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics” at ecological theory]]. Giznburg //et al//. (2007).

=====Venue and further information=====

[[http://www.ictp-saifr.org/?page_id=15612|ICTP-SAIRF site]]