I am writing to express my interest in applying for the PhD position in Mathematics. I believe that my education is well qualified to meet the needs of the PhD position. After completing my Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science at International University of Africa in Sudan, I received an offer from The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in South Africa, which is focussed around a nine-month, postgraduate course covering many of the most exciting areas of modern science and taught by outstanding African and international lecturers. AIMS gave me the opportunity to discover mathematical modeling from the perspective of research through various courses. For instance, “Structured Populations Models and their Applications in Genetics”, “Bioinformatics and Molecular Evolution” and “Non-linear Dynamical Systems in Biomathematics”. During this period, the perfect interconnection between Biology and Mathematics fascinated me. It is for this reason that I started off by working in my Essay phase on a topic tilted “Epidemiology Models with Age Structure”. During the three months long Essay phase I acquired humble background on the analysis of mathematical modeling for epidemiology. My Master’s thesis, which focuses on Matrix Models of Population Theory, brought me closer to the techniques of model design and evaluation. I aimed in my work at studying the evolution of structured population. I divide a population into different classes which could be age classes, size classes, developmental stages, spatial locations,etc. Then, I construct a matrix model describing the evolution of such population. The problem uses the Perron-Frobenius theory of non-negative matrices to study the longterm behavior of the models. The problem is very interesting, since it can also be applied in Epidemiology through “Metapopulation Systems”. Therefore the structured model in the case of Metapopulation System will be spatially structured. And one will be interested in answering important questions such as: How do migration flows of individuals contribute to the dispersal of the epidemic? How long will it take for the virus infecting someone in a country to cause subsequent infections in another country? How efficacy is the quarantine for infecteds of an epidemic and is there a critical (total) population size whose infection may not cause an outbreak?. These are some of the important questions asked by public health physicians when facing the possibility of an epidemic which can be answered using metapopulation systems in epidemiology.

On the whole, my background ambition and resourcefulness are ample demonstration of the valuable addition I will be to your institution. Please consider my application as this will afford me a conducive environment adequately competitive to bring out the intellectual champion in me. Many others before me who helped shape modern research in in the world attained the right institutions whose visions were similar to those of Nanjing University. I am hopeful that I will get the world class exposure that will make me be considered as one of those who will help shape modern research in my generation. Yours faithfully, With respect and regards, Suliman