Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY 2005

这一行动为NSF 2005财年生物信息学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金。该奖学金支持生物学与信息科学、计算科学、数学科学和统计科学交叉的博士后水平的研究和培训。该研究金的目标是为一名青年科学家提供培训，为从事生物信息学的职业做准备，在生物信息学中将把研究和教育结合起来。各个职业层次对生物信息学的培训需求越来越大，预计通过这些奖学金培训的研究员将在培训未来的劳动力方面发挥重要作用。该奖学金的研究和培训计划题为“模拟太平洋飞行：基于个人的候鸟探索”。在过去的几十年里，北美的滨鸟由于未知的原因经历了下降。这项研究正在开发一种空间上明确的、基于个体的滨鸟迁徙和种群动态模型，以西部琵鹭(Calidris Mauri)为重点物种。这些模型是从经验数据中参数化的，并用于探索种群减少的几个假说。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，并将这一技能传授给其他人。这项研究将大大拓宽这位研究员的生态学知识，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.