Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2002

这一行动为NSF 2002财年少数民族博士后研究奖学金提供了资金。该奖学金的目标是为少数族裔科学家在学术界和工业界担任科学领导职位做好准备。为了实现这一目标，该奖学金为最近的博士后获得者提供了高质量的博士后培训机会。这项计划是美国国家科学基金会的一项努力，目的是增加来自少数族裔群体的研究科学家的数量，从而为国家科学事业的未来活力做出贡献。预计通过这些奖学金培训的研究员将在未来的劳动力培训中发挥重要作用。该奖学金的研究和培训计划题为《交配系统对吊袜带蛇模型中亲子关系和适应性的影响》。这项研究通过询问父母的血缘关系是否影响父亲的贡献，进而影响红边吊袜蛇自然种群的母体适合度，来探索亲属识别在交配系统中的作用。这构成了对亲属识别存在的第一个测试，也是对任何蛇物种近亲繁殖抑制的第一次严格研究。

This action funds an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY2002. The goal of the fellowship is to prepare minority scientists for positions of scientific leadership in academia and industry. To attain this goal, the fellowship provides opportunities for postdoctoral training of the highest quality to recent doctoral recipients. This program is an effort by the NSF to increase the number of research scientists from underrepresented minority groups, thereby contributing to the future vitality of the Nation's scientific enterprise. It is expected that Fellows trained through these fellowships will play important roles in training of the future workforce.The research and training plan for this fellowship is entitled "Influence of mating system on patterns of parentage and fitness correlates in a garter snake model, Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis." This research explores the role of kin recognition in the mating system by asking whether parental relatedness influences paternal contribution and, in turn, maternal fitness in natural populations of the red-sided garter snake. This constitutes the first test for the presence of kin recognition and first rigorous study of inbreeding depression in any snake species.