Engage in Innovative Mathematical Biology Research at the NSF-Simons National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology

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The NSF-Simons National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology (NITMB)—funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Simons Foundation—was founded in 2023 to enhance the integration of research in the disciplines of mathematics and biology. The overall vision of NITMB is to understand the mathematical basis of constraints that drive biological capabilities. Achieving this goal promises to transform biological research and inspire new mathematical discoveries in a variety of application areas.

NITMB operates as a working partnership between Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. It is located on the 35th floor of the John Hancock Center at 875 N. Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, Ill. — halfway between Northwestern’s campus in Evanston and UChicago’s campus in Hyde Park. In fact, NITMB is only a few minutes’ walking distance from Northwestern’s Chicago campus. The Institute has a dedicated auditorium for convening activities, a dining area, temporary offices for visitors, and an extensive network of open collaborative workspaces for research and interaction. It is designed to house most of its research and convening activities internally and is readily accessible to participants from across the U.S. and around the world.

Overview of NITMB Research

Researchers at the Institute generate new mathematical results and uncover the “rules of life” through theoretical studies, data-informed mathematical models, and various computational and statistical tools. The structure of NITMB-supported research allows theorists and experimentalists to collaborate on experimental design, data analysis, and modeling. NITMB also fosters the development of new mathematics that is inspired by biology. In particular, the Institute offers two forms of research support: (i) funding for research projects and (ii) funding to visit and perform research at NITMB.

Research Projects

Direct NITMB funding finances internal research projects at Northwestern and UChicago, as well as external research projects at other U.S. institutions. External projects are funded for two years and support collaborative teams that perform high-risk, high-reward research with the potential to develop novel mathematics and provide impactful biological insights. More information about external project grants is available online.

Research by NITMB Visitors

NITMB strongly encourages researchers to participate in its Visiting Scholars Program (ViSP), which allows U.S. and international researchers to visit and work at NITMB for periods of one week to six months. The program aims to stimulate creative thinking and enhance collaborations between biological and mathematical scientists. ViSP participants include faculty, scientists in research laboratories, postdoctoral researchers, students, and small groups that focus on joint research projects. 

NITMB supports participants’ travel to and from Chicago and often covers their accommodations while they are working at the Institute. ViSP is intended to be flexible to the needs of its visiting scholars. For instance, some visit on their own to work with NITMB members or embed themselves and learn about new approaches and fields, while others come as small teams of collaborators who use NITMB as a central hub or meeting place for productive work. Visitors utilize temporary office spaces and can also attend workshops, seminars, tutorials, and research-in-progress meetings. Engaging with NITMB in this manner exposes guests to the vibrant intellectual life at the Institute.

Connie Phong, an assistant professor at Northeastern University Oakland, is certain that her experience as NITMB’s first Visiting Scholar left a lasting impression on her career. She particularly appreciated having access to the Institute’s diverse community. “Everyone has been so generous with their time,” Phong said. “I would say that if you are the slightest bit interested, you should definitely apply. I really think the program is important; being able to spend time here is important.”

Workshops and Long Programs

Scientific workshops and long programs are organized around broad conceptual themes that are common in mathematics and biology; they also highlight opportunities to develop new mathematics. These events are open to participants from institutions across the world and include researchers in both mathematics and biology. Most workshops and long programs are held at NITMB in downtown Chicago.

The workshop on Ecological Dynamics of Microbial Communities: New Approaches, which took place in spring 2024, inspired extensive discussions. Each day, speakers raised questions that pertained to a particular theme; conversations then grew from those questions, ultimately resulting in an entire day of discourse devoted to one main idea. Martina Dal Bello, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University, found that the daily themes served as valuable talking points. “The fact that there was a theme each day and a person coordinating the talks, I think this was very useful to get everyone on the same page about the topic,” she said. “This was a very brilliant idea; this time and these small group discussions really pushed collaboration.” Dal Bello also enjoyed the allotted periods for brainstorming. “This is the first short workshop that I participated in where there was time to sit down with potential collaborators and jot down ideas and questions to work on together,” she continued. “This workshop spurred so many new collaborations, which is good because new collaborations bring new questions and new discoveries.”

In November 2024, the workshop on Random Dynamical Systems with Applications in Biology united mathematicians who work on random dynamical systems with biologists who incorporate these frameworks into their research. The workshop was structured to help participants identify the most promising opportunities to address biological questions by developing mathematics at the interface of dynamical systems and probability theory. Attendees from across the world came together to produce robust approaches that use random dynamical systems to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the biological phenomena that they model.

Two upcoming NITMB workshops are scheduled for early 2025. In January, NITMB will hold a workshop on Biological Systems that Learn. The goal of this gathering is to discover novel principles and mathematical approaches that are shared between physical learning systems, biological learning systems, and neural networks. And in February, NITMB’s Emerging Directions Workshop will be an outstanding opportunity for interested individuals to experience the Institute. This event will feature presentations by leading experts about open problems in biology and mathematics; it is thus ideal for early-career scientists and mathematicians who are curious about innovative research questions in biology. The workshop is designed to spark new cross-disciplinary research activities, create new working groups, and generate new ideas for convening programs that will address growing areas of research.

NITMB encourages you to submit proposals for scientific workshops and long programs. Workshops are focused, weeklong programs in specific areas of current research at the intersection of biological and mathematical sciences, while long programs comprise a series of related workshops with broad themes that are held throughout an academic quarter. Both workshops and long programs receive organizational and financial support from the Institute, including lodging, travel, and local funding for all participants. To learn more and submit a proposal, visit the online webpage.

NITMB MathBio Convergence Conference

NITMB intends to host a summer conference every two years, with the first iteration planned for August 11-13, 2025. The MathBio Convergence Conference aims to bring together diverse researchers from mathematics and biology to share their discoveries and achievements, spark new interactions and collaborations, and network across disciplines. The conference will feature several invited speakers and provide ample opportunities for attendees to present contributed talks and posters. It will take place in downtown Chicago in a venue that is close to NITMB and can accommodate all conference participants.

NITMB Seminar Series

Each week, NITMB hosts seminars about diverse topics in mathematics and biology that are presented by visiting scientists or NITMB members. These seminars include both an in-person and virtual component. To learn more and view the schedule of speakers, visit the online listing.

Summer Undergraduate Research Program

NITMB’s annual Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) trains the next generation of researchers to work at the interface of mathematics and biology. During the eight-week session, students are paired with one or more NITMB faculty mentors to engage in cutting-edge research. Weekly workshops and panel discussions focus on science communication, scientific computing, collaboration, applications for graduate school and fellowships, and career pathways. Participants become part of the NITMB community and attend lunches and teatimes with NITMB faculty, fellows, and graduate students. The program provides a generous stipend, travel reimbursement, housing, and a meal plan.

Evan Gibbs, a mathematics major at York College, spoke highly of the experience. “Without a doubt, this cohort was most certainly the driving highlight of my summer,” he said. Pratyush Rallapally, a biology and statistics double major at the University of California, Santa Barbara, valued the networking and growth opportunities that SURP offered. “The program has given me access to such an expansive support system at NITMB, Northwestern, and through the other participants,” he said. “It has also given me more confidence as a researcher and cemented [the fact] that research that intersects math and biology is a path worth pursuing.” Helen Yoo, a chemistry and music double major at Bradley University, concurred. “NITMB and my experience in this summer program has given me a look at what is really being done at the mathematical-biology interface,” she said. “It has introduced me to different ways of thinking and widened my perspective.”

Stay up to date with the latest information about NITMB by visiting nitmb.org.