Biocalculus: Calculus, Probability, and Statistics for the Life Sciences

BIOCALCULUS: CALCULUS, PROBABILITY, AND STATISTICS FOR THE LIFE SCIENCES shows students how calculus relates to biology, with a style that maintains rigor without being overly formal. The text motivates and illustrates the topics of calculus with examples drawn from many areas of biology, including genetics, biomechanics, medicine, pharmacology, physiology, ecology, epidemiology, and evolution, to name a few. Particular attention has been paid to ensuring that all applications of the mathematics are genuine, and references to the primary biological literature for many of these has been provided so that students and instructors can explore the applications in greater depth. Although the focus is on the interface between mathematics and the life sciences, the logical structure of the book is motivated by the mathematical material. Students will come away with a sound knowledge of mathematics, an understanding of the importance of mathematical arguments, and a clear understanding of how these mathematical concepts and techniques are central in the life sciences.

James Stewart received the M.S. degree from Stanford University and the Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. After two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of London, he became Professor of Mathematics at McMaster University. His research has been in harmonic analysis and functional analysis. Stewart’s books include a series of high school textbooks as well as a best-selling series of calculus textbooks published by Cengage Learning. He is also co-author, with Lothar Redlin and Saleem Watson, of a series of college algebra and precalculus textbooks. Translations of his books include those into Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Greek, Indonesian and Japanese. A talented violinist, Stewart was concertmaster of the McMaster Symphony Orchestra for many years and played professionally in the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. He has given more than 20 talks worldwide on mathematics and music. Stewart was named a Fellow of the Fields Institute in 2002 and was awarded an honorary D.Sc. in 2003 by McMaster University. The library of the Fields Institute is named after him. The James Stewart Mathematics Centre was opened in October, 2003, at McMaster University.