Cross-listed in
Genetics and Anthropology.
The course concerns the development of mathematical models of population
genetics and the evolutionary deductions derived from these models. Special attention is
given to mutation, population structure, covariance approaches to natural selection, the
evolution of interactions (cooperation), and the emergence of new levels of
selection and complexity.
The field of population genetics is one of the most mathematically developed fields in
biology. The basic principles of population genetics were developed early this century,
not as empirical generalizations from nature, but as deductions from mathematical models.
As is the case with any field of inquiry, it is illuminating to understand the methodology
used in obtaining results. For theoretical science, this means understanding the
mathematical techniques employed in analyzing models. Thus, you will be exposed to a
sampling of mathematical techniques including difference equations, statistics,
probability theory, branching processes, diffusion processes, linear stability analysis
and matrix algebra. I hope you will come to appreciate both the beauty of model
construction and analysis as well as its utility in evolutionary analysis.
