Collaborative Research: PoLS Student Research Network

这个合作研究项目由四个机构（莱斯大学、耶鲁大学、UIUC和普林斯顿大学）组成，旨在继续生命系统物理学生研究网络（PoLS SRN）。这个网络已经存在了四年，并对许多在美国和国外从事物理科学技术应用于生命系统的研究生产生了巨大的影响。这些学生现在可以参与到一个全球性的社区中，这个社区可以帮助处理在这样一个新的、本质上是多学科的领域进行研究所涉及的许多复杂问题。这些问题的范围从适当的培训到获得广阔的视野，再到获得在其本国机构可能无法获得的技术专门知识。除了与研究人员培训相关的明显更广泛的影响外，该计划还有其他广泛的影响。通过pol节点之一（Rice）与休斯顿生物医学界的互动，学生和教师将接触到物理学可以促进人类健康问题的可能途径。吸引代表性不足群体的学生参加网络会议的资金将通过新提议的网络协调员管理的新资金提供。此外，通过pol SRN审查的想法将用于在其他科学和工程领域创建学生网络。物理学的概念和方法对增进对生命世界的了解起到了至关重要的作用，而且随着科学界向更加定量和可预测的生物学方向发展，物理学的重要性将越来越大，这一观点目前几乎没有异议。因此，物理界显然需要培养新一代能够领导这一努力的科学家，这些科学家必须将物理/数学的严谨性和从分子尺度以上的生命系统的广泛知识正确地结合起来。PoLS SRN旨在建立一个研究生社区，他们可以共同帮助自己和导师加速和加强这一培训过程。这是通过面对面交流和虚拟交流的混合模式来实现的，这项建议是继续和扩大这些努力的一项计划；它将接触到更多的学生，改善社会网络门户，并利用不同网络节点的互补研究议程来提供广泛的技术专长。做所有这些，将提高整个研究领域的智力水平，并使最优秀的学生相信，生命系统物理学确实是21世纪科学中最令人兴奋的研究前沿。该项目由物理系生命系统物理学项目、分子与细胞生物科学系分子生物物理集群、化学系生命过程化学项目和综合有机系统系细胞动力学与功能项目共同支持。

This collaborative research project, consisting of four institutions (Rice, Yale, UIUC and Princeton) aims to continue the Physics of Living Systems Student Research Network (PoLS SRN). This network has been in existence for four years and has had a dramatic impact on many graduate students, both in the US and abroad, working on the application of physical science techniques to living systems. These students now can participate in a global community that can help deal with the many complex issues involved in conducting research in such a new and inherently multidisciplinary field. These issues range from proper training, to gaining a broad perspective, to accessing technical expertise that may not be available at their home institution. In addition to the obvious broader impacts related to training of a research workforce, there are other broad impacts of this plan. Via the interaction of one of the PoLS nodes (Rice) with the biomedical community in Houston, students and faculty will be exposed to possible avenues whereby physics can contribute to human health issues. Funds to attract students from under-represented groups to network meetings will be available through the new funds administered by the newly proposed network coordinator. Also deas vetted by the PoLS SRN will be adapted to create student networks in other areas of science and engineering.There is by now little disagreement with the general notion that concepts and methods from physics have been a critical contributor to the increased understanding of the living world, and that its importance will be growing as the scientific world moves toward an ever more quantitative and predictive form of biology. Thus, the physics community clearly needs to train a new generation of scientists who can lead this effort, scientists who have the right mix of physics/mathematics rigor and broad knowledge of living systems from molecular scales on up. The PoLS SRN aims at creating a community of graduate students who can collectively help themselves and their mentors accelerate and enhance this training process. This is being done by a mix of in-person and virtual modes of communication, and this proposal is a plan to continue and expand these efforts; it will reach more students, improve the social networking portals, and make use of the complementary research agendas of the different network nodes to provide broad technical expertise. Doing all of this, will boost the intellectual level of the entire research field and convince the best students that the Physics of Living Systems is truly the most exciting research frontier in 21st century science.This project is being jointly supported by the Physics of Living Systems program in the Division of Physics, the Molecular Biophysics Cluster in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, the Chemistry of Life Processes program in the Division of Chemistry, and the Cellular Dynamics and Function Program in the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems.