Vassar College Mathematics

Mathematics researcher Trachette Jackson, whose work on mathematical oncology has received international attention, will give two talks as part of the math department’s annual Asprey Distinguished Lectures series. She will discuss “Mathematical Biology: An Essential Part of Twenty-First-Century Science,” on Thursday, October 6 at 5:00pm, and “Mathematical Models of Anti-Cancer Therapies” on Friday, October 7, at 3:00pm. Both lectures will be held in Rockefeller Hall room 300, and are free and open to the public.

In her October 6 lecture Jackson will examine how the application of mathematics to biology has emerged in the twenty-first century as a vital research area, due to developments in numerical simulation with computing power, new mathematical models, and exciting multidisciplinary experiments.

On October 7 Jackson’s focus will be her use of mathematical models to understand cancer growth, which The Economist magazine has featured. She will discuss her research on combining mathematical modeling, numerical simulation, and in vivo tumor vascularization to gain deeper understanding of tumor growth and vascular structure at the molecular, cellular, and tissue levels. This work has led to mathematical models that quantify factors that affect capillary morphology, and allow predictions of growth. These models then provide a criterion for deciding which drugs are the best candidates for clinical trials.

About Trachette Jackson

Trachette Jackson is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Michigan, where she is the driving force behind several interdisciplinary initiatives. Jackson co-founded and co-directs the Mathematical Biology Research Group (MBRG), a campus wide program to foster interdisciplinary research at the interface of mathematics and biology; she is one of the principal investigators of the SUBMERGE program (Supplying Undergraduate Biology and Mathematics Education and Research Group Experiences) funded by the National Science Foundation, which merges the subjects of mathematics and biology for undergraduate students; and she is also spearheading a new Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics Bridge to the PhD program in order to address the national challenge of educating and training a diverse scientific workforce capable of unifying the fields of mathematics and the natural sciences.

In 2003 Dr. Jackson became the second African American woman to receive the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Research Award in Mathematics. In 2005 she received a James S. McDonnell 21st Century Scientist Award, and in 2008 Diverse Magazine honored her as one of the year’s Emerging Scholars. Jackson earned her Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics in 1998 from the University of Washington.

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Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential, liberal arts college founded in 1861.