Carlos Castillo-Chavez
(Short Biography, March 11, 2003) 

Carlos Castillo-Chavez (CCC) is a native of Mexico who immigrated to Wisconsin over 28 years ago where he held  non-academic jobs before returning to school.  CCC enrolled in the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (1975) where he majored in Spanish Literature and Mathematics in 1976.   CCC completed his Masters degree in mathematics in 1977 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and his Ph.D. in 1984 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  CCC taught for a year at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma (1984-85) before accepting a position as a postdoctoral student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University.  Simon Levin, now at Princeton University, was his mentor from 19985-1988.  CCC joined the Cornell faculty in 1988 as an assistant professor of biomathematics, was promoted to associate professor in 1991, and to full-professor in 1997. 

CCC has received various awards including two White House Awards (1992 and 1997), a QEM Giant in Science Mentoring Award (2000), and SACNAS distinguished senior scientist award (2001).  In addition, CCC was named distinguished alumni by the UW-Stevens Point Alumni Association (1999); Professor Plenario by the Universidad de Belgrano (Argentina, 1996); and held a Catedra Patrimonial by the Institute of Applied Mathematics (IIMAS) at National University in Mexico (UNAM, 1998). He was selected as the 2003 Ulam Scholar by the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics (CNLS) at Los Alamos National Laboratory. 

CCC established the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute in 1996. MTBI supports and fosters research activities primarily among underrepresented minority undergraduate students who are enrolled at non-selective US universities. During the regular academic year, MTBI also mentors and supports underrepresented minority undergraduate and graduate students from various universities who are working in the mathematical or statistical sciences.  MTBI has mentored and trained over 170 undergraduate students (mostly from underrepresented minority groups) in the mathematical and statistical sciences over the past seven summers.  About 50% of these students are currently enrolled in graduate programs across the nation.  CCC received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 1997, in part, for the work that he carried out in MTBI. 

CCC currently holds joint appointments in the Departments of Statistics, Biological Statistics and Computational Biology and Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Cornell University. In addition, he is a member of the graduate fields of applied mathematics, biometry, epidemiology, ecology and evolutionary biology, statistics and theoretical and applied mechanics. CCC's research involves the use of dynamical systems (broadly understood so as to include stochastic processes)  and computational approaches in the study of questions arising in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology, epidemiology, demography, social dynamics, homeland security  and population dynamics. 

CCC's research is driven by the study of the role of social dynamics (social landscape) on disease evolution.  CCC has carried out specific research on HIV/AIDS, influenza, Chagas Disease, Dengue, Tuberculosis, life history evolution, cooperative learning, dynamics of drug abuse and addiction, and the dynamics associated with the spread of ideologies . CCC received a Presidential Faculty Fellowship Award (1992-1997) for his interdisciplinary research and leadership efforts.  CCC's research and education programs have been funded by various funding sources including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Security Agency, and the Sloan Foundation. He founded in 1997, the Cornell-Sloan fellowship program in the mathematical and statistical sciences at Cornell University, a program that he has directed ever since. CCC has published over one hundred research articles, edited four volumes, and co-authored a textbook on mathematical biology with Fred Brauer (2001). All of These volumes have been published by Springer-Verlag. In addition, he is putting a volume together with Tom Banks on possible contributions to homeland security that will be published in SIAM's series, Frontiers in Applied Mathematics. 

 CCC has three children (Carlos. W., Melissa A., and Gabriela C.) and is married to Nohora Londono, a native of Armenia, Colombia.