The principal speaker is Abdul-Aziz Yakubu. Yakubu is a Professor of Mathematics at Howard University and his scientific interests range through of nonlinear systems that arise in the diverse fields of ecology, population dynamics, epidemiology and demography. He is interested in a wide variety of equations that define dynamical systems, including difference equations, recursive formulas, matrix equations, ordinary and partial differential equations, and delay equations. His work focuses on asymptotic dynamics, i.e., stability analysis, bifurcation analysis, oscillations, periodic solutions (forced or unforced), aperiodic dynamics, and chaos.

He has been an instructor and principal lecturer in a number of similar programs, including DIMACS reconnect summer workshops in 2002 and 2004, the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute at Cornell and at Los Alamos National Laboratory 1999-2003. Yakubu has received several awards for teaching excellence.