IGERT: Computational Phylogenetics and Applications to Biology

系统发育学研究基因、个体、种群和物种之间的关系，构成了所有比较生物学的基础。这笔IGERT赠款将支持计算系统遗传学和生物学应用方面的全面、跨学科研究生培训计划。该项目涉及来自德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校计算和生物科学的27名教职员工，它将在五年内每年支持12名研究生实习生。将强调两个主要的研究领域：计算系统发生学和应用系统发生学。系统发育学为所有生物学提供了一个基本框架，并向计算科学家提出了许多技术挑战。计算系统发育学涉及系统发育推断的计算方面，而应用系统发育学使用估计的系统发育来解决广泛多样的生物学问题。培训计划将包括一系列新的和现有的课程和研讨会，针对未被充分代表的科学领域的学生的暑期培训计划，由一名计算和一名生物教师参与者共同指导每个研究生，将学生安置到生物学和计算机科学的成熟研究小组，参加春季招聘会议和秋季系统发生学务虚会，以及在生物信息学行业、国家实验室和非政府组织实习的机会。该项目的目标是：(I)为计算和生物科学领域的研究生设计和实施跨学科培训课程，使学生能够理解计算生物学并为之做出贡献；(Ii)促进计算科学家和生物科学家之间的跨学科研究生研究和跨学科互动，以开发和测试解决系统发育学中悬而未决的问题的新方法，并将其应用于生物学问题；(Iii)为学员在研究生院以外的职业生涯做好准备，并帮助他们在更大的研究界提高知名度；以及(Iv)评估和改进计算和应用系统遗传学计划，以确保其成功超出拟议的IGERT项目。该计划将为来自计算和生物科学的研究生和教职员工创造一个独特的合作环境。IGERT是一个NSF范围的计划，旨在应对培养具有多学科背景的博士科学家和工程师的挑战，以及未来职业需求所需的技术、专业和个人技能。该项目旨在通过建立新的、创新的研究生教育和培训模式，在一个超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中，催化研究生教育的文化变革。在该计划的第四年，22个机构被授予奖项，这些机构的项目共同涵盖了NSF支持的所有科学和工程领域。这一具体奖项的知识焦点位于生物科学理事会；计算机和信息科学与工程理事会；以及教育和人力资源理事会。

Phylogenetics , the study of the relationships among genes, individuals, populations, and species, forms the basis for all of comparative biology. This IGERT grant will support a comprehensive, interdisciplinary graduate training program in Computational Phylogenetics and Applications to Biology. The program involves 27 faculty participants from the computational and biological sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, and it will support 12 graduate trainees each year for five years. Two major research areas will be emphasized: computational phylogenetics and applied phylogenetics. Phylogenies provide a fundamental framework for all of biology, and present the computational scientist with many technical challenges. Computational phylogenetics is concerned with the computational aspects of phylogenetic inference, and applied phylogenetics uses estimated phylogenies to address a wide diversity of biological questions. The training program will involve a series of new and existing courses and seminars, a summer training program for students from underrepresented areas of science, co-advisement of each graduate student by one computational and one biological faculty participant, placement of students into well-established research groups in biology and computer science, participation in spring recruitment conferences and fall phylogenetics retreats, and opportunities for internships in the bioinformatics industry, national laboratories, and non-government organizations. The goals of this project are: (i) design and implement an interdisciplinary training curriculum for graduate students across computational and biological sciences that prepares students to understand and contribute to both sides of computational biology; (ii) stimulate interdisciplinary graduate research and interdisciplinary interactions in general between computational scientists and biological scientists that will lead to development and testing of novel approaches to unsolved problems in phylogenetics and their application to problems in biology; (iii) prepare trainees for their careers beyond graduate school and help them achieve visibility in the larger research community; and (iv) evaluate and improve the program in computational and applied phylogenetics to ensure its success beyond the proposed IGERT project. This program will create a unique collaborative environment for graduate students and faculty from the computational and biological sciences.IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the multidisciplinary backgrounds and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing new, innovative models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. In the fourth year of the program, awards are being made to twenty-two institutions for programs that collectively span all areas of science and engineering supported by NSF. The intellectual foci of this specific award reside in the Directorates for Biological Sciences; Computer and Information Science and Engineering; and Education and Human Resources.