From my first ECMTB in Krakow, I have come to know and then work with numerous people of the Society. I have made use of the banner name, time and again, to advertise events concerning mathematical biology, e.g. seminar series celebrating the Year of Mathematical Biology. An organisational role would then be a way of giving back to the Society for the opportunities it has provided me over the years. Given the current situation, I envision that the Board duties and responsibilities have multiplied.

The importance of mathematical modelling and analysis impacting policy-making has never been higher, and I believe that it falls on Societies like ours to sort the grain from the chaff over the coming years. Rising to challenges like these, I would be honoured to share the obligation. Developing initiatives, such as outreach from school level onwards to the publishing of peer-reviewed electronic content (fostering dialogue à la eLife format) can help our field keep pace with the way science is being conducted and promoted. Taking part in the ongoing/future activities and designing and developing new initiatives for the Society would be my privilege.

Haralampos Hatzikirou
Helmholtz Center for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany

I am currently a group leader at the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research. My research is focused on the cell decision- making in pathophysiological multicellular systems and its implication in biomedical problems, such as cancer. Also I am interested in the fusion of mathematical modeling and machine learning.

I have been a member of ESMTB since my PhD years back in 2005. I believe that ESMTB should pave the way to redefine and broaden the scope of mathematical biology. In particular, apart from the academic and research excellence, I am envisioning mathematical biology getting closer to industry. Specially the rise of biodemical data science offers a fertile ground. Mathematical biology is a an applied field and I believe this could be manifested in the current biomedical market.

Tommaso Lorenzi
Politecnico di Torino, Italy

I am an Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Politecnico di Torino. Previously, I was Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews, and Postdoctoral Fellow at the ENS Paris-Saclay and at the Sorbonne-Université.

I started working in Mathematical Biology during my PhD studies.

My research is on the development, analysis and numerical simulation of discrete and partial differential equation models. I collaborate with researchers in the natural and social sciences, and my research interests include models of evolutionary dynamics and tumour growth.

I strongly believe that research in Mathematical Biology requires transdisciplinary collaboration crossing boundaries between applied and fundamental scientific research. It would be a privilege to become a member of the ESMTB Board to proactively contribute to activities that promote knowledge transfer between researchers with diverse scientific backgrounds, harness the range of skills from across the continent, allow students and young researchers to access interdisciplinary training, and facilitate dissemination of research findings to the public and non-academic stakeholders.

I am a professor at Sorbonne University, formerly known as Paris 6, and was head of the Jacques Louis Lions laboratory 2013-2019. I have been elected to the french Academie des Sciences in 2018 and I am currently runing the Adora ERC advanced grant. I am co-editor in chief of Acta Applicandae Mathematicae.

My scientific background is on nonlinear Partial Differential Equations, from control theory, Boltzmann theory and conservation laws. At the end of the previous century I decided to fully re-orient my research to the direction of mathematical biology. For that purpose I organized an Inria team (now called Mamba) on this subject and an option of master degree in my university. I am a theoretician and my interests are broad in terms of biology fields (bacterial movement, tissue growth, chemotaxis, neuroscience, evolution).

As a member of the ESMTB board, my goal would be to promote mathematical biology at the highest scientific level, help young researchers and PhD student in the field of mathematical biology and still increase relations between life sciences and all the areas of mathematical modeling.

Nikolaos Sfakianakis
University of St. Andrews, UK

I am a Lecturer of Applied Mathematics/Mathematical Biology at the University of St Andrews. I obtained my PhD in Applied Mathematics/Numerical Analysis from the University of Crete in 2009, and have worked in École Normale Supérieure in Paris, the University of Vienna, the Johannes-Gutenberg University in Mainz, and Heidelberg University.

My research interests extend through various scales of cancer growth; from single cell migration to macroscopic cancer invasion. I employ in my work, primarily, tools of mathematical modelling, numerical analysis, and scientific computing.

One of the biggest challenges of modern Mathematical Biology research is the (ir-)reproducibility of the scientific computing results. As a member of the ESMTB board I will do my best in this direction and help our Society take the necessary steps to address this issue.

I am an Associate Professor at the Department of Mathematics and Applications of the University of Naples, Federico II, Italy. From 2001 to 2004 I was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Princeton University. From 2004 to 2018, I was at the Faculty of the School of Applied Mathematics and Physical Sciences of the National Technical University of Athens, Greece.

My research focuses on the modeling, computational analysis and control of complex multi-scale systems to address emerging challenging problems in applied mathematics, computer science, physical, life sciences, and engineering. These problems arise across interdisciplinary disciplines as mathematical epidemiology and computational neuroscience.

I have been invited to give several plenary and invited presentations in international conferences, workshops and universities. In 2012, I was awarded the Fulbright Award for Academic Excellence to conduct research and lecturing on Complex Systems Dynamics at Princeton University. In 2016, I was the local organizer of the Dynamics Days Europe conference, one of the major conferences worldwide in the field of nonlinear dynamics. Since 2019, I am the Chair-Elect of the Advisory Board of Dynamics Days Europe. In 2019, I was the local organizer of the 10th Conference on Dynamical Systems Applied to Biology and Natural Sciences. My research has been funded by many european and national grants. For more information about my CV and research activities please visit http://wpage.unina.it/constantinos.siettos.

As part of the ESMTB board, I will join forces to enhance networking and scientific collaboration in the fields of both Epidemiology and Neuroscience. In the difficult era of the new pandemic, I aim to work for the dissemination of the goals of ESMTB helping with the organization of conferences and summer schools but also their digital/virtual tweens.

I have been a CNRS researcher at the TIMC Laboratory in Grenoble since 2004. My initial scientific interest was towards morphogenetic processes using mathematical and computational approaches. I studied vascular development and angiogenesis occasionally doing experiments. That progressively led me to model tumor growth and anticancer therapies making me realise that hybrid multiscale and multiphysics modelling approaches were useful.

Mathematical and theoretical approaches in biology are widespread with an increasing importance, becoming centre stage in many works. I wish to accompany this evolution through the Society in all possible ways, by facilitating the emergence and structuring of new thematic groups, favouring new means of interactions with more webinars – to complement but never replace the Society’s Conference ! – by providing new tribunes to our community with new editorial partnerships, in continuity with the many initiatives already launched in that sense. I also wish to advocate interdisciplinarity whenever and wherever required.