Abstract or Additional Information
There is an impending and strong possibility that the undead will once again populate the Earth (To quote Prof. George Romero: "When there is no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth") . In this talk, I will describe the mathematics that underlie this invasion. Part I will describe the population dynamics of zombie infestations and how it may be possible to overcome them. I will use data that has been gathered over the last 50 years of zombie science ("Kill the brain and you kill the ghoul"; "Rule #2: Double Tap") to create some differential equation models and then analyze them. In Part II of the talk, I describe some recent advances in the science of Vampirology done in collaboration with Pitt Math Major Jackie Ruchti. Using ODE models, we find that the presence of vampire killers can lead to oscillations in the population of vampires and their victims.