Decoding Biology through Mathematics

FALL 2026

Instructor: Prof. INDIKA Rajapakse (indikar@umich.edu)

Teaching Assistant: RAM Prakash (nuvi@umich.edu)

Location: 1200 Chemistry Building, Class Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM

Office Hours:

Indika R - Tuesday and Thursday , 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM: https://meet.google.com/dnm-zipr-tsb or in person after class
Ram P - Wednesday 3:00 - 4:00 PM Zoom and Friday 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM in person Room 3370, NCRC B520

Links

Syllabus
Topics and Timeline (Topics and Timeline subject to change without notice. Please check regularly)
Piazza (Please sign in and add yourself to the course if you have not already)
Course Feedback Form
Challenge Problem! This is from the book by Smale and Hirsch, Differential Equations, Dynamical Systems, and Linear Algebra. If you would like more challenging problems, please see the following paper.

Smale, Steve. "Mathematical problems for the next century." The mathematical intelligencer 20.2 (1998): 7-15.

References of Interest

Claude Shannon: His famous paper and his thesis
MATLAB: 1) MATLAB Tutorial 2) Basic Functions Reference
Great book with codes: Cleve Moler. Numerical computing with MATLAB. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, (2004), Solutions to Exercises
Digital Library and TwinCell Blueprint: An unofficial digital library I maintain that contains books and papers on topics related to my research and teaching

I will add to this list throughout the semester

Strogatz SH. "Exploring complex networks." Nature. 2001 Mar;410(6825):268-76.
Rajapakse I. "Conversation with Dr. Steve Smale and Dr. Lee Hartwell." NOTICES OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY, 68 (9).
Hartwell, Leland H., et al. "From molecular to modular cell biology." Nature 402.6761 (1999): C47-C52.
Too much Coupling and Network Thinking
Strogatz, Steven H. "Love affairs and differential equations." Mathematics Magazine 61, no. 1 (1988): 35-35. (FUN read!)
Making connections

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