Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY 2005

本行动资助2005年度美国国家科学基金会生物信息学博士后研究奖学金。该奖学金支持生物学与信息、计算、数学和统计科学交叉领域的博士后研究和培训。该研究金的目标是向青年科学家提供培训，为从事生物信息学方面的研究和教育相结合的职业做准备。越来越需要在所有职业级别上进行生物信息学培训，预期通过这些研究金培训的研究员将在培训未来工作人员方面发挥重要作用。这项研究和培训计划的题目是“模拟太平洋飞行路线：基于个体的迁徙滨鸟探索”。在过去的几十年里，由于未知的原因，北美的滨鸟数量下降了。本研究以西部矶鹬（Calidris mauri）为焦点物种，建立了一个空间明确的、基于个体的滨鸟迁徙和种群动态模型。这些模型是根据经验数据参数化的，并用于探索人口下降的几种假设。培训目标是学习开发既具有实践意义又具有理论意义的生态模型的方法，并将此技能传授给他人。这项研究将大大拓宽她的生态知识，加深她的数学和计算技能，并使她能够与野外和保护生物学家密切合作。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY 2005. The fellowship supports research and training at the postdoctoral level at the intersection of biology and the informational, computational, mathematical, and statistical sciences. The goal of the fellowship is to provide training to a young scientist in preparation for a career in biological informatics in which research and education will be integrated. There is an increasing need for training in biological informatics at all occupational levels, and it is expected that Fellows trained through these fellowships will play important roles in training the future workforce.The research and training plan for this fellowship is entitled "Modeling the Pacific Flyway: An individual-based exploration of migratory shorebirds." Shorebirds in North America have experienced declines, for unknown reasons, over the last several decades. This research is developing a spatially-explicit, individual-based model of shorebird migration and population dynamics, using Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri) as a focal species. The models are being parameterized from empirical data and used to explore several hypotheses of population decline.The training goals are to learn methods to develop ecological models that can be of both practical and theoretical interest and to teach this skill to others. This research will substantially broaden the Fellow's ecological knowledge, deepen her mathematical and computational skills, and enable her to work in close collaboration with field and conservation biologists.