NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

博士后研究员：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.该研究金支持研究员的一项研究和培训计划，该计划将增加在生物学领域代表性不足的群体的参与。 安德鲁·麦克唐纳（Andrew J. MacDonald）的研究计划的标题是“土地利用变化和森林砍伐：亚马逊盆地病媒传播疾病风险的原因和后果”。“该研究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病媒传播疾病和土地使用变化之间的双向关系，使用亚马逊地区的疟疾和森林砍伐作为模型系统。更好地了解这些关系对于保护、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清除，依赖于被清除栖息地的物种消失，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-及其传播的病原体往往受益于土地使用的变化。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却产生了模棱两可的结果，往往得出相互矛盾的结论。这种模糊性的一个重要来源可能是土地利用变化和疾病之间存在双向反馈，如果忽视，可能导致不可靠和误导性的结果。该研究员正在使用广泛应用于实证经济学的可靠统计技术以及高分辨率的环境和流行病数据，以了解土地使用变化与疟疾之间的关系。在此过程中，他正在帮助开发一个通用框架，以解决土地利用变化和传染病之间的反馈，从而大大有助于新兴的疾病生态学领域。研究员正在接受先进的统计和计算建模，结合计量经济学和流行病学的技术培训。此外，该研究员的研究成果正被用于与来自旧金山弗朗西斯科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，吸引STEM领域代表性不足的学生。该研究员还通过旨在让低收入和第一代学生参与科学的方案指导几名高中和初中学生。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。

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.