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Long gone are the days when biologists drew images of their specimens and left complex math to the physicists. Today, biology is a data-intensive science that requires not only attention to nature, but a solid quantitative toolkit with which to query living systems.

That’s one reason why first-year graduate students in the University of Chicago’s Biological Sciences Division (BSD) are immersed in a weeklong “Quantitative Boot Camp” at the Marine Biological Laboratory (�ֲ���ý). While drawing inspiration and organisms from the ocean surrounding the �ֲ���ý, the nearly 100 students are diving into concepts and techniques in mathematics, computation, and quantitative imaging that cut across the sub-disciplines of biology.

A certain amount of “getting to know you” is in order, too. “The BSD students are in programs ranging from human genetics to evolutionary biology to neuroscience to biophysics,” says , Assistant Professor in UChicago’s Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy. “One of the goals of the boot camp is to get them talking to each other.” Palmer is co-directing the boot camp with , Professor in UChicago’s Department of Ecology and Evolution and Computation Institute.

The students also receive career planning advice and hear research presentations by �ֲ���ý scientists. “We hope these talks may kick off a few collaborative projects [between the students and �ֲ���ý researchers],” Palmer says.