AMMCS-2011 Plenary Talk:

Discrete and Continuous Optimal
Control for Biological Models

by Suzanne Lenhart

Department of Mathematics,
University of Tennessee

This presentation will illustrate optimal control methods applied to several types of models, including a mixture of discrete and continuous features.  The applications range from a discrete model for cardiopulmonary resuscitation to partial differential equation models for rabies in raccoons. Detailed results  will be given for harvesting in a PDE fishery model that answers the question: Does a marine reserve occur when maximizing harvest yield?

Suzanne Lenhart is a full professor in the Mathematics Department at the University of Tennessee.  She was a a part-time research staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1987-2009. Her research involves partial differential equations, ordinary differential equations and optimal control of biological and physical models.  She has over 115 research journal publications and a  2007 book, "Optimal Control applied to Biological Models."

She was the President of the Association for Women in Mathematics in 2001-2002.   She was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in 2004 and again in 2007. She is the Associate Director for Education, Outreach and Diversity for the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis. Lenhart was the director of the Research Experiences for Undergraduates summer program for UT Math. Dept. from 1990-2005 and now directs such a program for undergraduate math and biology majors and veterinary students for the institute.