Biography
I'm a Mathematical Biologist originally from Newfoundland, Canada. Besides Mathematics, I have many interests and hobbies, some of which include swimming, soccer, biking, painting, and reading (mostly historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy). I love the winter! Skiing, snowshoeing, and skating are some of my favorite things to do during the cold months. For those of you wondering, yes, I do love watching hockey. I can play a little too, but I'm fairly terrible at it. I'm also a strong advocate for women in science, and have volunteered many hours working with WISEST: Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science & Technology; a program at the University of Alberta dedicated to empowering women in all fields of science, engineering and technology. I hope to do similar work here at Clarkson.
Education Background
Department of Mathematics and Statistical Sciences Ph.D. - 2013 University of Alberta
Department of Mathematics and Statistical Sciences M.S. - 2008 University of Alberta
Department of Mathematics and Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography B.S. - 2006 Memorial University of Newfoundland
Courses Taught
- MA131 - (Calculus 1) at Clarkson
- MA132 - (Calculus 2) at Clarkson
- MA332 - (intermediate ODEs) at Clarkson
- MA363 - (mathematical modeling) at Clarkson
- MA531 - (Graduate Partial Differential Equations and BVPS) at Clarkson
- MA739 - (Graduate Bio-Mathematics Seminar) at Clarkson
- MA/BY368 - (Undergraduate Bio-Mathematics Seminar) at Clarkson
Research Interests
As a Mathematical Biologist, I am interested in research problems that are at the interface between Mathematics and Biology. The main objective of my research is to use analytical and numerical techniques to help understand biological problems of clinical importance. By using Mathematics to study such problems, new insight can be gained that might not be easily attained using biological techniques alone. I have a broad range of projects I am currently working on, including the development and simulation of differential equation models that describe human body weight change, liver metabolism, and intracellular dynamics. In addition to understanding normal intracellular behavior, much of my work involves applications to cancer treatment - so I am also interested in how cellular dynamics are altered by the addition of various cancer drugs.
More recently, I've started modeling biological invasions in my own backyard (literally!). In particular, I'm developing a model to study the spread and biological control of invasive watermilfoil, an invasive aquatic plant that's spread through much of the US. The test site I'm looking at is Norwood Lake (where I live), a small reservoir located along the Raquette River in Upstate New York.
Publications
- 2019: Honore, S., Hubert, F., Tournus, M., White, D. A growth-fragmentation approach for modeling microtubule dynamic instability; Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538- 018-0531-2.
- 2018: Gallaher, J., Larripa, K., Renardy, M., Shtylla, B., Tania, N., White, D., Wood, K. Zhu, K., Passey, K., Robbins, M., Bezman, N., Shelat, S., Cho, J., Moore, H. Methods for determining key components in a mathematical model for tumor-immune dynamics in multiple myeloma; The Journal of Theoretical Biology, 458, 31-46.
- 2018: Gallaher, J., Larripa, K., Ledzewicz, U., Renardy, M., Shtylla, B., Tania, N., White, D., Wood, K. Zhu, K., Passey, K., Robbins, M., Bezman, N., Shelat, S., Hearn, J.C., Moore, H. A mathematical model for tumor-immune dynamics in multiple myeloma; Chapter in “Understanding Complex Biological Systems with Mathematics”, Springer, Verlag.
- 2017: White, D., Honore, S., Hubert, F. A new mathematical model for microtubule dynamic instability: exploring the effect of end-binding proteins and microtubule targeting chemotherapy drugs; The Journal of Theoretical Biology, 429, 18-34.
- 2017: Hillen, T., White, D., de Vries, G., Dawes, A. Existence and Uniqueness for a Coupled PDE Model for Motor-Induced Microtubule Organization; Journal of Biological Dynamics, doi:org/10.1080/17513758.2017.1310939.
- 2017: Barlukova, A., White, D., Henry, G., Honor´e, S., Hubert, F. Mathematical modeling of microtubule dynamic instability: new insight into the link between GTP-hydrolysis and microtubule aging; Mathematical Modeling and Numerical Analysis,doi:https://doi.org/10.1051/m2an/2017025.
- 2016: White, D., Coombe, D., Rezania, V., Tuszynski, J. Building a 3D virtual liver: An approach for generating vasculature, as well as simulation of blood flow and hepatic clearance on 3D structures; PLOS ONE, 11(9), doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0162215.
- 2016: Hillen, T., White, D., de Vries, G., Dawes, A. Existence and uniqueness for a coupled PDE model for motor-induced microtubule organization; in revision with the Journal of Biological Dynamics.
- 2015: White, D., de Vries, G., Martin J., Dawes, A. Microtubule patterning in the presence of moving motor distributions; The Journal of Theoretical Biology, 382, 81-90.
- 2014: Tuszynski, J., Winter, P., White, D., Tseng, C-Y., Sahu, K., Gentile, F., Spasevska, I., Omar, S., Nayebi, N., Churchill, C., Klobukowski, M., Abou El-Magd, R. Mathematical and computational modeling in biology at multiple scales; Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling, 11(52), doi:10.1186/1742-4682-11-52.
- 2014: White, D., Dawes, A., de Vries, G. Microtubule patterning in the presence of stationary motor distributions; Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 76, 1917-1940.
- 2014: Saberi, M., White, D., Tuszynski, J. Geometrical comparison of two protein structures using Wigner-D Functions; Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics, DOI:10.1002.