Prof B is for Biomath
Professor Erin N. Bodine
Professor Erin N. Bodine
Erin N. Bodine is a professor of Mathematics & Statistics at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. She was hired at Rhodes College as an Assistant Professor in 2010, received tenure in 2017, and was promoted to full professor in 2024. Bodine earned her BS in Mathematics (and a BA in Anthropology) from Harvey Mudd College in 2003, and her PhD in Mathematics with a concentration in Mathematical Ecology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2010. Bodine's dissertation work, and a portion of her current research, focuses on using optimal control theory to analyze conservations measures for endangered species. More broadly, Bodine's current research uses difference equations, differential equations, and agent-based models to analyze and simulate the dynamics of a diverse set of systems: endangered species populations, the spread of infectious diseases within a population, and reproductive effort and success in plants. Since starting at Rhodes College, Bodine has enjoyed several productive research collaborations with Rhodes undergraduates and continues to work with 2-8 students each year on a variety of biomathematics research projects.
During her first three years at Rhodes College, Bodine spearheaded the effort to create a Biomathematics major which graduated its first major in May 2014. As a part of developing the Biomathematics major, Bodine created two mathematical modeling courses, one which focuses on the modeling process and scientific writing (Math 315), and another which focuses on discrete-time modeling methods (Math 214). She has also created an additional elective course in agent-based model (Math 314). Bodine has given several presentations on the pedagogical goals and outcomes of each of these courses at a variety of national and international mathematics and biomathematics conferences, and has made many of the materials she developed for these courses freely available via the qubeshub.org. Prof B firmly believes that math is for everyone, and strives to make math exciting and accessible in all of her classes.
In service to Rhodes College, Bodine has served on the Academic Advising Committee, the Technology & Academic Space Committee and a variety of hiring and ad-hoc committees, as chair of the Department of Mathematics & Statistics, and currently serves on the Environmental Sciences & Studies Program Committee and as a Faculty Workday Fellow. Bodine, her husband and two daughters love living in Memphis, TN and canoeing the local Wolf River, the Buffalo River in Arkansas, and several of the natural springs in northern and central Florida.
Prof B wrote a textbook!
Mathematics for the Life Sciences is an undergraduate textbook that doesn't just focus on calculus as do most other textbooks on the subject. It covers deterministic methods and those that incorporate uncertainty, problems in discrete and continuous time, probability, graphing and data analysis, matrix modeling, difference equations, differential equations, and much more. The book uses MATLAB throughout (an R supplement is available), explaining how to use it, write code, and connect models to data in examples chosen from across the life sciences.