We present two distinct mathematical models where high-order integral equations are applied to electromagnetic problems. The first problem is to find the electric potential in and around ion channels and Janus particles. The second problem is to find the electromagnetic scattering caused by a set of simple geometric objects.In biology, we consider two types of inhomogeneities: the first one is a simple model of an ion channel which consists of a finite height cylindrical cavity embedded in a layered electrolytes/membrane environment, and the second one is a Janus particle made of two different semi-spherical dielectric materials. A boundary element method (BEM) for the Poisson-Boltzmann equation based on Muller's hyper-singular second kind integral equation formulation is used to accurately compute electrostatic potentials. The proposed BEM gives O(1) condition numbers and we show that the second order basis converges faster and is more accurate than the first order basis.For solar cells, we develop a Nystrom volume integral equation (VIE) method for calculating the electromagnetic scattering according to the Maxwell equations. The Cauchy principal values (CPVs) that arise from the VIE are computed using a finite size exclusion volume with explicit correction integrals. Outside the exclusion, the hyper-singular integrals are computed using an interpolated quadrature formulae with tensor-product quadrature nodes. We considered cubes, rectangles, cylinders, spheres, and ellipsoids. As the new quadrature weights are pre-calculated and tabulated, the integrals are calculated efficiently at runtime. Simulations with many scatterers demonstrate the efficiency of the interpolated quadrature formulae. We also demonstrate that the resulting VIE has high accuracy and p-convergence.