Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Informatics for FY 2003

跨学科信息学博士后研究奖学金由数学和物理科学理事会(MPS)和生物科学理事会(BIO)联合赞助，以鼓励跨越它们之间传统学科界限的研究和培训。这些奖学金为寻求使用信息学工具和方法对生物学问题进行研究的众多新近获得博士学位的人(生物学家、化学家、物理学家、数学家、统计学家、计算机科学家等)提供了在生物学和信息学方面进行跨学科研究和教育活动的机会。预计通过这些研究金培训的研究员将在培训未来的工作人员方面发挥重要作用。信息学博士后培训将允许受过生物、数学、化学和物理科学培训的初级科学家在开发新的量化工具和方法方面发挥关键作用，这些工具和方法将促进生物学和其他领域的信息学。这项研究和培训计划的标题是《利用几何形态测量学对化石中的扭曲进行量化和消除》。许多化石标本因地质作用而变形，产生了可能误导形态分析的“噪音”。这个项目的目标是开发一种几何形态计量学方法来量化和消除化石中扭曲的影响。这项技术将被广泛应用，并将使用对双齿类和牙形脊椎动物等群体的进化研究。

Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Interdisciplinary Informatics are sponsored jointly by the Directorates for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) and Biological Sciences (BIO) to encourage research and training that cross the traditional disciplinary boundaries between them. These fellowships provide opportunities for interdisciplinary research and educational activities in biology and informatics to a wide range of recent doctoral recipients (biologists, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists, and others) who seek to conduct research on biological questions using informatics tools and methods. It is expected that the Fellows trained through these fellowships will play an important role in training the future workforce. Postdoctoral training in informatics will permit junior scientists trained in biology, mathematical, chemical, and physical sciences to play key roles in developing new quantitative tools and methods that will advance informatics in biology and other fields. The research and training plan is entitled "Quantification and removal of distortion in fossils using geometric morphometrics". Many fossil specimens have been deformed by geological processes, resulting in "noise" that can mislead morphological analyses. The goal of this project is to develop a geometric morphometrics method to quantify and remove the effects of distortion in fossils. The technique will be broadly applicable and will use evolutionary studies of groups such as dicynodont therapsids and conodont vertebrates.