Responding to a felt need to establish a culture of research in the Institute, a small group of junior faculty from the Mathematics Division sought prevalent and problems in other fields of study, particularly in biology. The goal was to use mathematical techniques to provide additional insights and gain further understanding of complex biological phenomena. In 2010, this endeavor headed by Dr. Jomar F. Rabajante (who, at that time, has just received his master’s degree) was termed “The UPLB BioMathematics Initiative.” The Initiative was intended to bridge the life sciences and mathematics. They also envisioned the Initiative to be later transformed into a strong research program and a model for interdisciplinary research collaboration.

Since its inception, the UPLB BioMathematics Initiative has helped enhance our knowledge base by using techniques and tools of applied mathematics to model and analyze biological processes. Researches are done in collaboration with various local and international experts in biomathematics, as well as other areas of mathematics such as graph theory, combinatorics, operations research, analysis, and probability theory, and experts from the life sciences and other disciplines. Results of these successful collaborations in Chemical Reaction Network Theory, Mathematical Parasitology and Epidemiology, Molecular Systems Biology, Ecological and Environmental Simulation, and Agricultural Modeling have been showcased in several research articles published in high impact journals.