UMD’s Abba Gumel Elected to Lead the Society for Mathematical Biology
The Distinguished University Professor of Mathematics will help guide the international society dedicated to research and education at the interface of mathematics and the biological sciences.
For the first time since its founding in 1973, the Society for Mathematical Biology (SMB) elected a University of Maryland faculty member to lead its international community of researchers and educators in academia, industry and government agencies. Abba Gumel, a Distinguished University Professor of Mathematics at UMD, was named president-elect by the SMB’s board of directors in June and will succeed Reinhard Laubenbacher from the University of Florida.
“It is a profound honor to be elected to serve the SMB, which has been an intellectual home to me throughout my career,” said Gumel, who has a joint appointment in the Institute for Physical Science and Technology and the University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing (UM-IHC). “I look forward to working with colleagues across the society to strengthen scientific exchange, expand mentoring and professional-development opportunities, broaden access to SMB programs and build partnerships that allow mathematical biology to contribute even more powerfully to the health and biological sciences.”
A global leader in mathematical biology, Gumel studies the spread of deadly infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and influenza. He designs novel mathematical models to predict disease trajectories and develop strategies to mitigate and control them, and he has contributed significantly to the mathematical theory of epidemics.
Gumel has published more than 170 peer-reviewed publications, and he is the editor or associate editor of eight scientific journals. He is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Mathematical Society, World Academy of Sciences, African Academy of Sciences, African Scientific Institute and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
He previously served as an at-large member of the Finance Committee of the SMB, which was founded to promote the global development and dissemination of research and education at the intersection of the mathematical and biological sciences—a boundary that, for years, held great but largely untapped promise for research and discovery.
“We have come a long way in breaking down silos between mathematics and biology,” said Gumel, who also holds the Michael and Eugenia Brin Endowed Chair in Mathematics. “Some of the most exciting scientific advances now happen where disciplines meet. The SMB has a special role to play in supporting that work, especially for students and early-career researchers who will shape the future of the field.”
“We’re thrilled that the SMB elected Abba to this leadership role,” said UM-IHC’s Co-Executive Director Adam Porter, a professor of computer science at UMD. “He is an exceptional choice, and I have no doubt the society will thrive during his tenure.”
