San Marcos,
02
September
2015
|
15:35 PM
America/Los_Angeles

Applying Mathematics to Biology

By David Ogul

Assistant Professor Badal Joshi is helping to mold the applied mathematics program at Cal State San Marcos.

“I feel I can have a great impact on how the program evolves here,” said Joshi, who earned his Ph.D. at Ohio State University and taught at both Duke University and the University of Minnesota before coming to CSUSM’s mathematics department in 2013.

Joshi is an expert in applying mathematical theory to biology.

“My interest has always been in applying mathematics to the sciences—probability and differential equations play a vital role in understanding biological systems,” he said, noting that his current research projects use mathematical and computational techniques to study sleep-wake cycling in infant mammals. The goal: revealing fundamental insights into the function and mechanisms of sleep and its development.

His area of expertise is not for the faint of heart. One research paper, Simplifying the Jacobian criterion for precluding multistationarity in chemical reaction networks, is identified as providing “an algorithm to apply the Jacobian criterion of Craciun and Feinberg in order to rule out multiple steady states based on the reaction network structure independent of the reaction rate constants.”

To Joshi, CSUSM is perfectly balanced in its priorities.

“I like the mix of research and teaching here,” he said. “And I can teach a wide variety of mathematics courses, everything from pre-calculus to graduate courses.”

Helping the campus celebrate its 25th anniversary is an added bonus.

“It is a great occasion. A 25th anniversary is always special. It’s huge for a young campus like ours.”