NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

2016 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金

• 批准号: 1611767
• 负责人: Andrew MacDonald
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: MacDonald Andrew J
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2018-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1611767&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

Postdoctoral Fellow: Andrew John MacDonaldProposal Number: 1611767This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Andrew J. MacDonald is "Land use change and deforestation: A cause and consequence of vector-borne disease risk in the Amazon Basin." The host institution for this fellowship is Stanford University, and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Erin Mordecai. The goal of this project is to understand the bi-directional relationship between vector-borne disease and land use change, using malaria and deforestation in the Amazon as a model system. Improved understanding of these relationships is critically important to conservation, economic development and human health. Land use change is one of the most pressing environmental issues facing society. As natural lands are cleared by humans, species reliant on the cleared habitat are lost while other species replace them. There is substantial evidence that arthropod vectors - such as mosquitoes and ticks - and the pathogens they transmit, often benefit from land use change. Yet, studies attempting to link land use change directly to human disease have yielded ambiguous results, often drawing contradictory conclusions. One important source of this ambiguity may be the existence of bi-directional feedbacks between land use change and disease that, if overlooked, can result in unreliable and misleading results. The Fellow is using robust statistical techniques widely applied in empirical economics, and high-resolution environmental and epidemiological data, to develop an understanding of the relationships between land use change and malaria. In so doing, he is helping to develop a general framework to address feedbacks between land use change and infectious disease, thereby contributing greatly to the burgeoning field of disease ecology.The Fellow is receiving training in advanced statistical and computational modeling, incorporating techniques from econometrics and epidemiology. In addition, the Fellow's research results are being used to develop interactive educational tools and curricula in collaboration with high school teachers from underserved communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. These teachers are working to implement innovative teaching tools and strategies in their own classrooms to engage underrepresented students in STEM fields, using the Fellow's project results. The Fellow is also mentoring several high school and middle school students through programs aimed at engaging low income and first generation students in science. Finally, the Fellow is using the research results to inform conservation policy in Brazil to reduce malaria burden.

博士后：Andrew John macdonald提案号：1611767本行动资助NSF 2016年度生物学博士后研究奖学金，扩大生物学中代表性不足群体的参与。该奖学金支持研究员的一项研究和培训计划，该计划将增加生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。这项研究计划的标题是“土地利用变化和森林砍伐：亚马逊流域媒介传播疾病风险的原因和后果”。这个奖学金的主办机构是斯坦福大学，赞助科学家是Erin Mordecai博士。该项目的目标是了解媒传疾病与土地利用变化之间的双向关系，以亚马逊地区的疟疾和森林砍伐为模型系统。增进对这些关系的了解对保护、经济发展和人类健康至关重要。土地利用变化是当今社会面临的最紧迫的环境问题之一。随着自然土地被人类开垦，依赖被开垦的栖息地的物种消失，而其他物种取而代之。有大量证据表明，节肢动物媒介——如蚊子和蜱虫——以及它们传播的病原体往往受益于土地利用的变化。然而，试图将土地利用变化与人类疾病直接联系起来的研究产生了模棱两可的结果，往往得出相互矛盾的结论。造成这种模糊性的一个重要原因可能是土地利用变化和疾病之间存在双向反馈，如果忽视这种反馈，可能导致不可靠和误导性的结果。该研究员正在使用在经验经济学中广泛应用的可靠统计技术，以及高分辨率的环境和流行病学数据，以了解土地利用变化与疟疾之间的关系。在这样做的过程中，他正在帮助制定一个总体框架，以解决土地利用变化和传染病之间的反馈，从而为疾病生态学这一新兴领域做出巨大贡献。该研究员正在接受高级统计和计算建模方面的培训，其中结合了计量经济学和流行病学的技术。此外，研究员的研究成果正被用于与旧金山湾区服务不足社区的高中教师合作开发互动式教育工具和课程。这些教师正在努力在自己的课堂上实施创新的教学工具和策略，利用研究员的项目成果，让STEM领域中代表性不足的学生参与进来。该研究员还通过旨在吸引低收入和第一代学生参与科学的项目指导几名高中生和中学生。最后，该研究员正在利用研究结果为巴西的保护政策提供信息，以减少疟疾负担。