The European Society for Mathematical and Theoretical Biology was founded in 1991 during the first European Conference on Mathematics Applied to Biology and Medicine in l'Alpes d'Huez, France (now European Conference on Mathematics and Theoretical Biology). This conference was held under the initiative of Vincenzo Capasso and Jacques Demongeot who joined the first board of the society with Jim Murray (President), Karl Peter Hadeler and Willy Jäger. The birth of ESMTB was the fruit of three years of discussions to gather a community and organize such a society; the first ‘Biomathematics Newsletter’ is produced as soon as 1988 by Wolfgang Alt and Karl-Peter Hadeler. The fall of the Berlin wall in November 1989 is part of the historical background behind the initiative.
From its foundation, the ESMTB has been partner with other scientific societies. Now it is a member of two mathematics entities, the EMS (European Mathematical Society) and the ICIAM (International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics). It has links with many national societies for mathematical and theoretical biology and in particular the SMB (Society for Mathematical Biology) with which we share a common conference every four years.
Several historical documents are available online:
- Karl Peter Hadeler and the rise of Mathematical Biology, by Odo Diekmann (Eur. Comm. in Math. and Theor. Biology, 23, p18, 2020)
- Memories on the 20th anniversary of the foundation of ESMTB 1991, by Vincenzo Capasso (Eur. Comm. in Math. and Theor. Biology, 13, p28-33, 2011)
- Presentation by Wolfgang Alt for the 15th birthday of ESMTB in 2006 (in Journal of Mathematical Biology, Volume 53, p337–339, (2006)).
The past presidents of ESMTB have been:
- 1991-1993: James D. Murray
- 1994-1996: Karl Peter Hadeler (*2017)
- 1997-1999: Jacques Demongeot
- 2000-2002: Vincenzo Capasso
- 2003-2005: Mats Gyllenberg
- 2006-2008: Wolfgang Alt
- 2009-2011: Carlos Braumann
- 2012-2014: Andrea Pugliese
- 2015-2017: Roeland Merks
- 2018-2020: Andrea de Gaetano
- 2021-2023: Ellen Baake