Andrew Oster Email and Phone Number

My role at Eastern Washington University is to provide a quality educational experience to my students and to ensure the continuing success of the EWU Mathematics program through maintaining an active research program and helping to shape the curriculum. In addition, I am involved in the advising for both the Mathematical Contest in Modeling and the Preparation for Industrial Careers in Mathematics program at EWU (2014-2015). In my research, I utilize mathematics in order to study physiological and neurological systems. In particular, I have studied neural development of the visual system, mitochondrial function and calcium signalling, and the dynamics of the midbrain neurons responsible for dopamine signalling. These projects have involved a variety of mathematical techniques from classical applied mathematics (pattern formation theory, bifurcation theory, perturbation methods, dynamical systems theory, and numerical simulation). As this work is interdisciplinary by nature, I regularly read biology journal articles and based on the biology create mathematical models to understand the mechanisms underlying a variety of biological systems. A combination of analytical and numerical techniques are used in this endeavor.