NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2014

NSF生物学博士后奖学金将研究和培训部分结合在一起，为年轻科学家在新兴领域的职业生涯做好准备，这些领域的生物学与其他科学学科交叉，在这里是数学和物理科学。预计研究员将成为国家未来科学劳动力的领导者。这项给里昂·M·布朗的奖学金支持一项研究和培训计划，该计划旨在调查长距离迁徙如何影响动物免疫和传染病动态。主办机构是佐治亚大学，赞助科学家是索尼娅·阿利泽博士和理查德·霍尔博士。培训目标包括流行病学数学建模、数据管理和确定动物感染状态和免疫功能的实验室技能。该研究员计划举办研讨会，培训专业人员和学生进行生态数据统计分析方面的培训，并向以低收入为主的K-12学校进行教育推广，以交流数学概念如何解决生态学、保护生物学和公共卫生方面的现实问题。该奖学金由国际和综合活动办公室和生物科学局共同资助。动物迁徙可以通过影响宿主免疫和接触病原体来改变传染病的动态。人类活动改变了景观，给动物迁徙制造了障碍，导致一些动物迁徙距离较短或形成定居种群。由于迁徙动物可以传播感染人类的病原体，了解迁徙和感染动态之间的相互作用，以及病原体如何应对迁徙的丧失，有助于预测人类和野生动物的疾病风险变化。该项目的重点是泰兰氏捕蝇器的宿主特征和病原体动态，泰兰氏捕蝇器是美洲各地迁徙和久居的一组不同的鸟类。关于感染流行和免疫功能的现场数据正在与统计和数学模型相结合，以估计病原体在年度周期中的传播和宿主存活。这项研究有望提高对动物迁徙在传染病传播中的作用的理解，并与其他迁徙物种具有广泛的相关性。

NSF Postdoctoral Fellowships in Biology combine research and training components to prepare young scientists for careers in emerging areas where biology intersects with other scientific disciplines, in this case mathematics and physical sciences. Fellows are expected to be leaders of the nation's scientific workforce of the future. This fellowship to Leone M. Brown supports a research and training plan to investigate how long distance migration influences animal immunity and infectious disease dynamics. The host institution is the University of Georgia and the sponsoring scientists are Dr. Sonia Altizer and Dr. Richard Hall. Training objectives include epidemiological mathematical modeling, data management, and laboratory skills to determine animal infection status and immune function. The Fellow plans workshops to train professionals and students in statistical analysis of ecological data and educational outreach to predominantly low-income K-12 schools to communicate how concepts in mathematics can address real-life problems in ecology, conservation biology and public health. This fellowship is funded jointly by the Office of International and Integrative Activities and the Directorate for Biological Sciences.Animal migrations can alter infectious disease dynamics through effects on host immunity and exposure to pathogens. Human activities transform landscapes and create barriers to animal migration, causing some animals to migrate shorter distances or form sedentary populations. Because migratory animals can transport pathogens that infect humans, understanding interactions between migration and infection dynamics, and how pathogens respond to the loss of migration, can help forecast changes in disease risk for humans and wildlife. This project focuses on host characteristics and pathogen dynamics in Tyrannid flycatchers, a diverse group of birds with migratory and sedentary populations across the Americas. Field data on infection prevalence and immune function are being combined with statistical and mathematical models to estimate pathogen transmission and host survival across the annual cycle. This research promises to improve understanding of the role of animal migration in infectious disease spread, with broad relevance to other migratory species.