Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2002

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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.