As the world population exceeds the six billion mark, questions of population explosion, or how many people the earth can support, and under which conditions, become pressing. The goal of this book is to search for a balance between simple and analyzable models and unsolvable models which are capable of addressing questions such as these. This book, which will include both examples and exercises, will be useful to practitioners, graduate students, and scientists working in the field.

Fred Brauer, Department of Mathematics, University of British Columbia, Canada; Carlos Castillo-Chavez, Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center, Arizona State University, USA