Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Informatics for FY 2003

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Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Interdisciplinary Informatics are sponsored jointly by the Directorates for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) and Biological Sciences (BIO) to encourage research and training that cross the traditional disciplinary boundaries between them. These fellowships provide opportunities for interdisciplinary research and educational activities in biology and informatics to a wide range of recent doctoral recipients (biologists, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists, and others) who seek to conduct research on biological questions using informatics tools and methods. It is expected that the Fellows trained through these fellowships will play an important role in training the future workforce. Postdoctoral training in informatics will permit junior scientists trained in biology, mathematical, chemical, and physical sciences to play key roles in developing new quantitative tools and methods that will advance informatics in biology and other fields. The research and training plan is entitled "Quantification and removal of distortion in fossils using geometric morphometrics". Many fossil specimens have been deformed by geological processes, resulting in "noise" that can mislead morphological analyses. The goal of this project is to develop a geometric morphometrics method to quantify and remove the effects of distortion in fossils. The technique will be broadly applicable and will use evolutionary studies of groups such as dicynodont therapsids and conodont vertebrates.