NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology for FY 2011

这一行动资助了NSF 2011财年生物学博士后研究奖学金，生物学与数学和物理科学的交叉点。该奖学金支持在东道主实验室为该研究员制定的研究和培训计划，该计划涉及生物学、物理学和应用数学交叉领域的创新。富尔顿·罗克韦尔的这项研究和培训计划的标题是：“植物叶子中的水分是以液体还是蒸气的形式流失？”这项研究的主办机构是康奈尔大学和芝加哥大学；赞助科学家是亚伯拉罕·斯特鲁克博士和查尔斯·凯文·博伊斯博士。我们对叶片结构和功能的理解中的一个根本差距是，蒸腾作用是沿着叶脉和叶表面气孔上的‘瓣膜’之间的主要气体还是液体路径进行的。回答这个问题不仅会让我们了解叶片的功能，还会让我们了解蒸腾作用的气孔调节以及叶片结构对瞬时水分利用效率的贡献，即每个水分分子获得的碳。蒸腾叶片内的主要运输方式仍然是一个悬而未决的问题，因为它发生在生物学、化学热力学和运输现象的交叉点上。为了解决液体和蒸汽之间的竞争问题，采用了建模和实验相结合的方法来确定树叶的内部几何和材料属性。康奈尔大学的斯特罗克实验室提供热质耦合传输方面的培训，该实验室的成员将化学工程和微流体方面的专业知识与对生物模拟设计的兴趣结合在一起。通过分析树叶的微观CT扫描获得结构信息的专业知识来自芝加哥大学博伊斯实验室的培训，该实验室寻求根据在现有谱系中观察到的结构-功能关系重建植物化石的生理学。更广泛的影响包括编写适合成年人和学校团体的关于树木生活的教育材料，其中纳入了研究结果所提供的植物观点。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2011, Intersections of Biology and Mathematical and Physical Sciences. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow whose plan involves innovation at the intersection of biology with physics and applied mathematics. The research and training plan for this fellowship to Fulton Rockwell is entitled, "Is water lost from plant leaves as a liquid or a vapor?? The host institutions for this research are Cornell University and University of Chicago; and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Abraham Stroock and Charles Kevin Boyce.A fundamental gap in our understanding of leaf structure and function is whether transpiration follows a predominantly vapor or liquid path between the leaf veins and the `valves' on the leaf surface, the stomata. Answering this question will inform not only our understanding of leaf function, but also stomatal regulation of transpiration and the contributions of leaf structure to instantaneous water use efficiency, that is, carbon gained per water molecule transpired. The dominant mode of transport inside transpiring leaves remains an open question precisely because it occurs at the intersection of biology, chemical thermodynamics and transport phenomena. To address the question of competition between liquid and vapor, a combination of modeling and experimental determination of the internal geometry and material properties of leaves is being employed. Training in coupled heat and mass transport is provided by the Stroock lab at Cornell University, whose members combine expertise in chemical engineering and microfluidics with an interest in bio-mimetic design. Expertise in obtaining structural information from analysis of micro-CT scans of leaves comes from training in the Boyce lab, at the University of Chicago, which seeks to reconstruct the physiology of fossil plants based on structure-function relations observed in extant lineages. Broader impacts include developing educational materials appropriate to both adults and school groups on the life of trees that incorporate a perspective on plants informed by the research results.