This text offers a guide to modeling biological phenomena using systems of ordinary differential equations. Anyone with a little exposure to the ideas of calculus can use this volume as a primer leading to the research literature in mathematical biology or as a stand-alone introduction to modeling complex systems. Modeling is our way of putting our understanding of science and medicine into a mathematical form. Only in this form can his knowledge be used to make the quantitative predictions about the future that form a basis for scientific or social action. Therefore models make the most sense when constructed with respect to a particular problem. Biological, and especially medical, problems occur in a rich context of ecological, social, cultural and geographic factors. These factors may be irrelevant or crucial, depending on the nature of the problem under consideration. SITUATED COMPLEXITY focuses on issues taken from the context of Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular the region around Lake Victoria in East Africa. Medical and ecological issues in this region are pressing and difficult to resolve, as well as being complex in cultural, biological and mathematical ways.

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