The inspiration for writing this book came from teaching a course on mathematical biology to third year undergraduate students in Applied Mathematics at the University of Adelaide. I started putting together the notes from which this book evolved after nearly a decade of experience in teaching that course. During this period, I have found great difficulty in the choice of textbooks to accompany the lectures. While some books have been written for biologists and medical scientists intending to learn mathematical techniques, there are almost no suitable textbooks which can cater for the needs of a student of an applied mathematics discipline wishing to become aware of the mathematical models used in physiology and biology. This book aims at remedying, at least partially, these defects.

The book contains enough material for a one-semester course on mathematical biology. Our primary users are assumed to be mathematically sophisticated students who have not previously encountered applications of mathematics to physiology and biology; indeed, in most cases will not have studued these subjects at all. It is not primarily intended to cater to the mathematical needs of biological science students although it may be of interest to those life science students who have done mathematics at second year level at university. The text uses mathematical rigour to elucidate physiological and biological phenomena. Much of the necessary mathematics is explained in the text. After completing this book, the student should have a working knowledge of the important mathematical techniques needed to appreciate mathematical modelling in biology and medicine.