Mathematical and theoretical ecology in České Budějovice (Czech Republic) started in early 80s in the newly established Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences. When Faculty of Science of the University of South Bohemia was opened, members of the mathematical biology group became faculties there. To further promote mathematical biology by teaching specialized courses and supervising students and to foster collaboration between mathematicians and biologists, both locally and internationally, a new Centre for Mathematical Biology was recently established. Current faculties are Vlastimil Krivan, Ludek Berec and Tomas Revilla.
Our primary research interests include mathematical modelling in ecology, epidemiology and evolutionary biology. Our research focus in ecology is on integrating individual-level behaviour with population and community dynamics, covering especially Allee effects, predator-prey dynamics and mutualistic interactions. We combine methods of evolutionary game theory, differential equations as well as stochastic, individual-based simulation modelling. Our models in epidemiology are actually eco-epidemiological models aimed at exploring how various kinds of infectious diseases affect and are affected by population dynamics.
At the Faculty of Science, we teach courses that cover various topics in ecology, epidemiology and evolutionary biology. These courses are mandatory in the bachelor programme in Applied Mathematics and facultative in the bachelor and master programmes in Teaching Mathematics. Apart from the theory, small modelling projects are offered to students, as well as leadership of theses with a variety of topics from mathematical biology. Recent theses topics include modelling predator-prey dynamics with structurally variable functional responses and modelling various cellular-level processes.