Eric Silverman
(University of Tokyo)

08/4/15, 13:30 at Room 3631 (6th floor of building 3 of the Faculty of Sciences)

Richard Levins' 1996 paper 'The Strategy of Model-Building in Population Biology' has triggered a long-running argument within the biological and philosophical community regarding mathematical modelling. As computational modeling has grown in popularity, the questions raised during the course of this debate also have relevance for those seeking to utilise such methodologies. Using Levins' conceptual framework as a guide, I determine which elements of such computational models are attractive for researchers, and how those very elements can create problems both conceptually and analytically. A further investigation of the relationship between the methodological difficulties of both mathematical and computational models provides an opportunity to revisit and augment the modeling framework initially proposed by Levins.

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