IRES Track 1: Neurobiology and evolution of frog dance displays in Austria and India

社会信号是动物生活的核心，调节着个体如何选择配偶和与对手竞争。因此，了解这些信号如何产生并随时间变化是现代生物学的一个基本目标。在这个IRES项目中，来自美国各地的本科生将接受培训，通过结合神经科学，行为和计算生物学领域的尖端技术来研究这一主题。具体而言，参与者将与国际研究团队的主要PI一起进行培训，该研究团队采用综合方法研究神经系统如何控制复杂的行为特征，以及对这些生理系统的修改如何支持信号创新。该计划将每年招收6名学生，重点是选择第一代和代表性不足的少数民族学生。然后，参与者将在夏季在奥地利和印度进行为期10周的海外实验室和实地工作，以进行团队领导的研究和独立研究。这一经验将与旅行前和旅行后的培训，以磨练学生的技术和文化培训，同时提供广泛的职业准备，从一个不同的导师。通过这种方式，我们将专注于培养不仅与科学敏锐性有关的技能，而且还与国际熟练程度和意识有关。因此，我们的计划承诺通过培养准备在21世纪加入全球STEM劳动力的大学毕业生来实现IRES计划的目标。 国际研究合作对生物学至关重要，为跨学科的重大发现奠定了基础，并揭示了生命多样性的原则。然而，来自美国的本科生经常遇到重大障碍，阻止他们参与这种合作工作。这对于来自历史上代表性不足的群体的学生来说尤其是一个问题，包括第一代学生和代表性不足的少数民族学生。因此，许多本科生没有准备好加入现代全球STEM劳动力队伍。因此，我们提出了一项计划，以解决这个问题，使6名本科生从历史上代表性不足的群体和1名研究生每年到奥地利和印度，在那里他们将参加为期10周的经验，研究青蛙显示进化的生理基础。他们将在大型团队中独立进行研究，以调查对运动控制系统的适应性，这些系统是社会信号行为的基础。他们还将使用先进的系统发育比较方法来跟踪这些运动系统如何随着时间的推移而变化，以支持青蛙信号行为的多样化和精细化。参与该项目涉及与我们感兴趣的物种所在的奥地利和印度的专业人员密切合作。它还涉及将实验室工作和实地工作的要素结合起来，以解决有关社会信号如何在生理和功能背景下发挥作用的基本问题。因此，参加IRES项目的学生不仅有机会解决生物学领域的基本问题，而且还可以在国际背景下解决这些问题，帮助他们为全球范围内的STEM职业做好准备。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Social signals are central to animal life, mediating how individuals pick mates and compete with rivals. Understanding how these signals arise and change over time is therefore a fundamental goal of modern biology. In this IRES project, undergraduate students from around the U.S. will be trained to investigate this topic by combining cutting-edge techniques in fields of neuroscience, behavior, and computational biology. Specifically, participants will train with leading PIs that are part of an international research team that takes an integrative approach to studying how the nervous systems controls complex behavioral traits, as well as the way modifications to these physiological systems can support signal innovation. The program will recruit a total of 6 students per year, with a strong emphasis on selecting both FirstGen and underrepresented minority students. Participants will then work abroad in Austria and India for a 10-week period during the summer in the laboratory and field to conduct team-led research and independent research. This experience will be bookended with pre- and post-travel training to hone the students’ technical and cultural training, while providing extensive career preparation from a diverse set of mentors. In this way, we will focus on building skills related not only to scientific acumen, but also international proficiency and awareness. Our program therefore promises to fulfill the goals of the IRES program by producing college graduates who are ready to join the global STEM workforce in the 21st century. International research collaborations are vital to biology, laying the groundwork for major discoveries that cross disciplinary lines and uncover principles about the diversity of life. However, undergraduate students from the U.S. often experience significant hurdles that prevent them from participating in such collaborative work. This is especially a problem for students from historically underrepresented groups, including both FirstGen students and underrepresented minority students. As a result, many undergraduates are ill-prepared to join the modern global STEM workforce. We therefore propose a program to address this issue by bringing 6 undergraduate students from historically underrepresented groups and 1 graduate student each year to Austria and India, where they will participate in a 10-week experience studying the physiological basis of display evolution in frogs. They will conduct research in large teams and independently to investigate adaptations to motor control systems that underlying social signaling behavior. They will also use advanced phylogenetic comparative methods to track how these motor systems change over time to support the diversification and elaboration of signaling behavior in frogs. Participation in the project involves working closely with PIs in Austria and India, where our species of interests are found. It also involves combining elements of laboratory work and field work to address fundamental questions about how social signals work in physiological and functional contexts. Accordingly, students who participate in this IRES project will be given the chance to not only address fundamental questions in the field of biology, but also do so in an international context that helps prepare them for STEM careers in a global landscape.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.