Introduction

My previous experiences with mechanics have been through applied research, the basics that are covered in undergraduate physics, and a single survey class on tissue mechanics.   As part of my research on limb development, I worked with a viscoelastic model for mesenchymal tissue, however I admittedly did not understand it thouroughly.  In fact, this lack of understanding was part of my motivation for taking this class.   My undergraduate coursework focused on mathematics and computer science, and I hold B.S. degrees in both.  I have applied these tools to biology problems, and in general find biology to be a good problem set to work on.  While I feel comfortable with the ideas of calculus, I am looking forward to the practice this course provides in vector calculus, and more so to the practice in manipulating and solving differential equations in several dimensions. My research here at Harvard will continue to explore the ties developmental systems in biology, and the constraints put on them by their mechanical constituents. I will continue my work in limb development, with a goal of creating a model system that both replicates the observed biological phenotypes, but also predicts new phenotypes caused by genetic mutants. Furthermore, I hope to develop a more general scheme for describing cell and tissue level outgrowth, and apply it to roots, pollen, fingers, and more.  More abstractly, I am interested in the solutions of the equations of fluid and solid meshanics, and feel that this class will certainly give me experience in solving these equations.