Meeting: June 1-2, 2015, Milton Keynes, UK: Supporting American Graduate Students & Postdocs to participate in the Royal Society Scientific Meeting: Elements, Genomes, & Ec

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This proposal requests funding to facilitate the participation of American graduate students and postdocs in a unique two-day cross-disciplinary Theo Murphy meeting organized by the Royal Society in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom. The meeting will explore how environmental nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) impacts the evolution of nucleic acids and how these evolutionary links between nutrients and nucleic acids cascade through natural and agricultural ecosystems. The proceedings of this meeting will be captured in a series of manuscripts. Participation of junior American scientists (i.e. graduate students and post-docs) in such a diverse, discussion-based conference will bring fresh new perspectives to this important question and will provide the junior scientists with the connections and context that they need to start a research program aimed at integrating processes that operate at multiple levels of biological organization. Such information will be vital for a clear understanding of how biological systems respond to environmental conditions. This proposal is to support the travel of American graduate students and postdocs to a unique two-day cross-disciplinary Theo Murphy meeting organized by the Royal Society (June 1-2, 2015, Chicheley Hall, Milton Keynes, UK). Bringing together scientists from around the world to present and discuss new research is the spirit of the Royal Society's Theo Murphy meetings. The PIs will host a meeting entitled "Elements, genomes and ecosystems: cascading nitrogen and phosphorus impacts across levels of biological organization" to unite senior and early-career scientists from seven countries (4 continents) working on issues ranging from genome size evolution to global environmental change. Specifically, the meeting will explore how environmental nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) impacts the evolution of nucleic acids and how these evolutionary links between nutrients and nucleic acids cascade through natural and agricultural ecosystems. The meeting will bring together expertise in N and P metabolism, plant and animal genome evolution, ecology, and agriculture. The meeting's goals integrate well with the National Science Foundation's central mission to train the next generation of scientists. Graduate students and postdocs will be actively recruited, with a particular emphasis on groups underrepresented in STEM fields, to apply for travel support requested in this proposal. NSF travel support will enable these students and postdocs to contribute to and benefit from the discussions at this unique meeting.