Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics

人们对遗传知识的力量的普遍认识体现在快速使用直接面向消费者的基因检测公司，让人们了解自己的祖先，找到以前不知道的亲戚，以及遗传系谱学家随后解决长期存在的犯罪。更一般地说，植物、动物和人类的遗传结构影响着它们的生存适应性和行为，也可以揭示它们的进化历史。遗传学的进步依赖于在自然界或实验室中进行的观察，这些观察的数字表示为科学理论以及自然保护主义者、动植物育种者、法医科学家和医生做出的决定提供了信息。将数据转化为知识是统计学的领域，统计遗传学正在像遗传学本身一样快速变化，以迎接孟德尔在收集豌豆七个特征的数据时无法想象的挑战。人类遗传学家现在拥有每个人超过10亿个遗传元素的数据集，即使是十年前的统计工具也往往不足以揭示如此多数据中的潜在信息。生物科学专业的学生需要帮助来学习新的统计程序，统计遗传学暑期研究所让他们与开发这些程序并已证明自己作为讲师和导师有效的人进行互动。统计遗传学暑期研究所是一个由18门短期课程组成的年度计划，每年7月在华盛顿大学举行为期三周的三个平行的半周会议。每门课程都由来自美国和其他国家的两名讲师领导。参与者可以通过一系列的课程，往往在多年的进展，开始与概率和统计的基本概念，并与先进的主题，包括马尔可夫链蒙特卡罗方法和路径和网络分析结束。他们可以选择解决自然或实验动植物种群或人类种群数据的课程。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

General awareness of the power of genetic knowledge is evident in the rapid use of direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies for people to learn about their own ancestries and to find previously unknown relatives, and the consequent solving of long-cold crimes by genetic genealogists. More generally, the genetic constitutions of plants, animals and humans influence their fitness for survival and their behavior and also can reveal their evolutionary histories. Advances in genetics rest on observations made in nature or in the laboratory, and numerical representations of those observations inform scientific theories as well as the decisions made by conservationists, plant and animal breeders, forensic scientists and physicians. Turning data into knowledge is the realm of statistics, and statistical genetics is changing as fast as genetics itself to meet the challenges Mendel could not have imagined when he collected data on seven characteristics of peas. Human geneticists now have data sets with over a billion genetic elements per individual, and the statistical tools of even ten years ago are often not sufficient to reveal the underlying information in so much data. Students in the biological sciences need help in learning about new statistical procedures and the Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics lets them interact with the people who developed those procedures and who have proven themselves effective as instructors and mentors. The Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics is an annual program of 18 short courses, held in three parallel half-week sessions over a period of three weeks each July at the University of Washington. Each course is led by two instructors from across the US and other countries. Participants can progress through a series of courses, often over multiple years, that begin with basic concepts in probability and statistics and end with advanced topics including Markov chain Monte Carlo methods and pathway and network analyses. They can choose courses that address data from natural or experimental plant and animal populations, or human populations. They can follow population or quantitative genetic streams, or learn about applications to conservation or forensic science.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.