To promote this interaction, we clarify the role of mathematical models in evolutionary biology. First, we briefly describe how models fall along a continuum from those designed for quantitative prediction to abstract models of biological processes.

spoke with Feldman at Stanford about how mathematical models can illuminate evolution, his contributions to the extended evolutionary synthesis, and his role in redressing China’s sex-ratio...

This chapter begins with an explanation of how mathematical theory can be used to model reproducing populations. Next, we discuss how deterministic processes (i.e., those with no random element) can be modeled by following genotype frequencies.

Evolution is a highly complex multilevel pro-cess and mathematical modeling of evolutionary phenom-enon requires proper abstraction and radical reduction to essential features. Examples are natural selection, Men-del’s laws of inheritance, optimization by mutation and selection, and neutral evolution.

In PLoS Biology, a paper co-authored by SFI Omidyar Fellow Caitlin Stern and former Omidyar Fellow Jeremy Van Cleve explores the role of mathematical modeling in evolutionary biology. The role of...