This volume represents the edited proceedings of the International Symposium on Mathematical Biology held in Kyoto, November 10-15, 1985. The symposium was or ganized by an international committee whose members are: E. Teramoto, M. Yamaguti, S. Amari, S.A. Levin, H. Matsuda, A. Okubo, L.M. Ricciardi, R. Rosen, and L.A. Segel. The symposium included technical sessions with a total of 11 invited papers, 49 contributed papers and a poster session where 40 papers were displayed. These Proceedings consist of selected papers from this symposium. This symposium was the second Kyoto meeting on mathematical topics in biology. The first was held in conjunction with the Sixth International Biophysics Congress in 1978. Since then this field of science has grown enormously, and the number of scientists in the field has rapidly increased. This is also the case in Japan. About 80 young japanese scientists and graduate students participated this time. . The sessions were divided into 4 ; , categories: 1) Mathematical Ecology and Population Biology, 2) Mathematical Theory of Developmental Biology and Morphogenesis, 3) Theoretical Neurosciences, and 4) Cell Kinetics and Other Topics. In every session, there were stimulating and active discussions among the participants. We are convinced that the symposium was highly successful in transmitting scientific information across disciplines and in establishing fruitful contacts among the participants. We owe this success to the cooperation of all participants.
