The following people have been invited to participate in the meeting. All have accepted the invitation and provided tentative titles for their talks. Attempts were made to ensure representation of women and minorities, and such attempts will continue as session chairs are selected. Six of the speakers are women and 1 is of Asian decent.

Dr. James B. Bassingthwaighte
Affiliation: Dept. of Bioengineering, Univ. of Washington
Research Focus: Large scale systems modeling and analysis, cardiovascular mass transport, and cardiac metabolism
Key Contribution: Dr. Bassingthwaighte is the originator of the Human Physiome Project, a large-scale international program for developing databasing and biological systems modeling for understanding genomic and pharmaceutic effects on human physiology.

Dr. Ray Boston
Affiliation: Dept. of Clinical Studies, NBC, University of Pennsylvania.
Research Focus: The development of mathematical and statistical techniques for the computer-based investigation of dynamic systems.
Key Contribution: Dr. Boston developed the Consam and WinSAAM software with Peter Greif and developed the popular Dairy Cow Ration Evaluation software, CPM Dairy. Dr. Boston first described the dynamics of water transport in the ruminant. Dr. Boston teaches modeling at the University of Pennsylvania and has taught numerous compartmental modeling workshops.

Dr. Christina Chan
Affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Michigan State University
Research Focus: Metabolism and Diabetes, Alzheimer and Parkinson's disease, Metabolic Engineering, Tissue Engineering, Bioinformatics and Multi-variate Analysis
Key Contribution: Has worked on bioinformatics approaches to integrate knowledge of in-vivo flux distributions in cells at different physiological states with respect eliciting cellular targets as predictors of disease.

Dr. Andy Clifford
Affiliation: Dept. of Nutrition, University of California, Davis
Research Focus: Folate digestion and metabolism in adults, and the chemical measurement of low levels of essential nutrients.
Key Contribution: Dr. Clifford convened the 6th Mathematical Modeling in Nutrition Research conference, and has for many years spirited the application of these and allied techniques to the understanding of nutrient digestion and metabolism.

Dr. Jim France
Affiliation: Dept. of Animal Science, Univ. of Guelph
Research Focus: Development of models capable for being used to interpret and extend biological observations including representation of isotopic movement.
Key Contribution: In collaboration with Drs. Baldwin and Thornley has led the modeling field in the area of ruminant nutrition. Has modeled all aspects of digestive function; absorption; hepatic, liver, mammary, muscle, and adipose metabolism; and tissue, whole animal, and whole farm systems.

Dr. Michael Green
Affiliation: Nutrition Dept., Penn State University
Research Focus: Vitamin A absorption and metabolism, and the influence of vitamin A intake level on its dynamics and storage processes.

Dr. Mark Hanigan
Affiliation: Dairy Science, Virginia Tech
Research Focus: Development and evaluation of digestive and post-absorptive protein, amino acid, and energy metabolic representations in the lactating dairy cow. Use of optimization algorithms with non-linear systems. Integration of genetics and metabolism.
Key Contribution: Developed a comprehensive metabolic model of the entire mammary gland of the dairy cow and representations of amino acid metabolism for liver and portal-drained viscera

Dr. James Hargrove
Affiliation: Department of Nutrition, University of Georgia, Georgia
Research Focus: Protein and amino acid metabolism in aging, stroke, and liver disease; Computer simulation and computer program development for education in fat and energy balance, osteoporosis, and cholesterol metabolism
Key Contribution: Dr. Hargrove has published widely, including authoritative texts, on methods for the application of mathematical modeling techniques to the investigation of cellular metabolism.

Dr. Rick Kohn
Affiliation: Dept. of Animal and Avian Sciences, University of Maryland
Research Focus: Nitrogen metabolism and the isolation of optimal feeding programs to reduce nitrogen wastage and pollution.
Key Contribution: Dr. Kohn isolated the respective contributions from alternate aspects of farm management (feeding, fertilizing, waste application, etc.) to soil nitrogen buildup.

Dr. Janet Novotny
Affiliation: USDA, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, Beltsville, MD
Research Focus: Metabolism of energy substrates in humans; Kinetics and bioavailability of phytonutrients.
Key Contribution: Dr. Novotny has modeled the kinetics of a broad set of nutrients in humans, including beta-carotene, lycopene, vitamin E, vitamin K, anthocyanins, and molybdenum. Dr. Novotny also has experience modeling energy balance in humans, and has used math to elucidate the role of visceral organs in depression of resting energy expenditure during weight loss. Dr. Novotny has co-taught modeling workshops in the past with Drs. Boston and Wastney.

Dr. Kim O'Brien
Affiliation: Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Research Focus: Prevention of mineral deficiencies
Key Contribution: Dr. OÕBrien has broad experience in mineral nutrition with a focus on children and pregnant or lactating women. Dr. OÕBrien has used modeling to elucidate metabolism of calcium, iron, and zinc to ameliorate or reduce the impact of mineral deficiencies.

Dr. Jim Oltjen
Affiliation: Dept. of Animal Science, Univ. of California, Davis
Research Focus: Animal management systems; resource use in animal agriculture; beef cattle growth.
Key Contribution: Has used Bayesian methods to derive more precise estimates of key growth parameters

Dr. Chris Palliser
Affiliation: Dexcel LTD, Hamilton, NZ
Research Focus: Integration of genetics, nutrition, and environment with respect to whole animal metabolism of the lactating dairy cow. Has extensive experience using ACSL including representations of individual animal performance and whole herd performance.
Key Contribution: Representation of metabolic effects on reproduction and genetic and environmental effects on metabolism

Dr. Blossom Patterson
Affiliation: Biometry Research Group, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD
Research Focus: Selenium kinetics and dietary assessment
Key Contribution: Has used compartmental modeling to elucidate pathways of selenium metabolism in humans.

Dr. Candido Pomar
Affiliation : Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lennoxville
Research Focus: Mathematical modeling of growth and digestion in pigs and development of optimization models with economical and environmental objectives. Exploration of the ability to manipulate production of greenhouse gases by ruminants using mathematical modeling
Key Contribution: Development of mathematical models representing different aspects of the animal metabolism such as growth, body composition of fattening pigs and protein digestibility.

Dr. Ganesh Sriram
Affiliation: Departments of Genetics and Chemical Engineering, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
Research Focus: Biochemical engineering, metabolic engineering of secondary metabolites, in vivo NMR for metabolic evaluation.
Key Contribution: Has developed several techniques to analyze plant metabolites and nutrients. These have included novel in situ 13C NMR techniques to monitor primary carbon metabolism and using modeling techniques to integrate whole cell metabolism.

Dr. Normand St-Pierre
Affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Ohio State University
Research Focus: Quantitative methods for evaluating dynamic animal systems; feed cost optimization, estimation of unit costs of nutrients and nutritional economics; management and nutritional strategies to reduce nutrient excretion; and forecasting methods for dairy risk management
Key Contribution: Has extensively explored the contribution of animal and input variance on predictions animal performance and economic return.

Dr. Meryl Wastney
Affiliation: Dept. of Nutrition, Purdue University
Research Focus: Investigation of mineral metabolism, trace element metabolism, and anticancer drug action using mathematical modeling.
Key Contribution: Dr. Wastney has isolated the degree to which bone calcium accretion and bone calcium loss can be controlled by calcium intake in women. Recent progress includes use of modeling to reveal changes in calcium metabolism during space flight. Dr. Wastney taught a modeling class for many years at Georgetown University, and has co-taught modeling workshops with Drs. Boston and Novotny.