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Société Francophone de Biologie Théorique French-speaking Society for Theoretical Biology |
The French-speaking Society for Theoretical Biology (SFBT) has a long history. In 1985, it succeeded the AMTB, the Association for the development of Theoretical Methods for Biology resulting from different founding events closely associated with each other.
In 1975, Henri-Jean MARESQUELLE, professor at the University of Strasbourg, used to invite many of his colleagues (with different scientific backgrounds) to round tables, twice a year. These meetings lead to very informal and scientifically fruitful discussions on themes such as thermodynamics and its implication in biology. These round tables where called the MARESQUELLE club for Theoretical Biology, after the accidental death of their creator, in 1977. They remained active until 1984 (18th meeting, centered on phyllotaxy).
Within this context, the idea of a Conference on models was made a reality in 1978 by Pierre DELATTRE and Michel THELLIER (Conference proceedings in the series Interdisciplinary Researches, Maloine, 1979, 748 pages). This Conference lead to the project of a School on Theoretical Biology: The first one was organized in 1980 with the support of CNRS.
The initial purpose of AMTB was to organize the following Schools; rapidly it received a more general objective for "the development of methods and theoretical formalisms useful for fundamental biological research and its practical applications" (Journal Officiel, 15 November 1981, p.9999).
