Mathematical Biology at an Undergraduate Liberal Arts College

Harvey Mudd College is an undergraduate liberal arts college that emphasizes science, engineering, and mathematics. The college enrollment is just under 800 students, and we have 82 full-time tenure-track faculty. Harvey Mudd is located in Claremont, CA, 30 miles east of Los Angeles. Harvey Mudd is a member of the Claremont Colleges, which include five undergraduate and two graduate institutions. Harvey Mudd has seven academic departments: Biology; Chemistry; Computer Science; Engineering; Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts; Mathematics; and Physics. Each of these departments offers a major (except Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts). Students at Harvey Mudd can also choose one of three interdisciplinary majors: Biology/ Chemistry, Mathematics/Computer Science, and Mathematical Biology. A Harvey Mudd student can also choose a major at one of the other Claremont Colleges. Students take roughly one-third of their courses in their major, one-third in a common core curriculum, and onethird in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts. The common core curriculum includes one semester each of biology, computer science, engineering, and writing. In addition, students take two to three semesters each of physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Thus, all students at the college have a biology background that emphasizes genetics and evolution and a mathematics background that includes linear algebra, probability and statistics, and differential equations. All of the college’s majors rely on this broad technical foundation.