Embedding and customizing templates in cross-disciplinary modeling

In this paper, I develop a template-based analysis to include several elements of processes through which templates are transferred between fields of inquiry. The analysis builds on Justin Price’s identification of the importance of a “landing zone” in the recipient domain, from which “conceptual pressure” may be created. I will argue that conceptual pressure is a characteristic feature of the process of template transfer; that this means that there are costs to the process of transfer as well as benefits; and that it would be reasonable if modelers try to mitigate these costs. I will discuss two such mitigation strategies: ‘conceptual embedding’ and ‘customization’. I illustrate the claims, focusing on the mitigation strategies, with a case study: that of pioneering applications of reaction–diffusion equations in mathematical ecology.