NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology for FY 2011

本行动资助2011年度美国国家科学基金会生物学博士后研究奖学金，生物学与数学和物理科学交叉。该奖学金支持奖学金获得者在主办实验室的研究和培训计划，该计划涉及生物学、物理学和应用数学交叉领域的创新。富尔顿·罗克韦尔奖学金的研究和培训计划的题目是，“水分是从植物叶片中以液体还是蒸汽的形式流失？”这项研究的主办机构是康奈尔大学和芝加哥大学；赞助的科学家是博士。亚伯拉罕·斯特罗克和查尔斯·凯文·博伊斯。在我们对叶片结构和功能的理解中，一个基本的空白是蒸腾作用在叶脉和叶片表面的“阀门”（气孔）之间是以蒸汽还是液体为主。回答这个问题不仅有助于我们了解叶片的功能，而且有助于我们了解气孔对蒸腾的调节以及叶片结构对瞬时水分利用效率（即蒸腾每个水分子获得的碳）的贡献。蒸腾叶片内部的主要运输方式仍然是一个悬而未决的问题，因为它发生在生物学、化学热力学和运输现象的交叉点。为了解决液体和蒸汽之间的竞争问题，正在采用建模和实验相结合的方法来确定叶片的内部几何形状和材料特性。康奈尔大学的Stroock实验室提供热和质量耦合传输方面的培训，该实验室的成员将化学工程和微流体方面的专业知识与仿生设计的兴趣结合起来。从叶片的微ct扫描分析中获得结构信息的专业知识来自芝加哥大学博伊斯实验室的培训，该实验室试图根据在现存谱系中观察到的结构-功能关系重建化石植物的生理学。更广泛的影响包括编写适合成年人和学校团体的关于树木生命的教育材料，其中包括根据研究结果提供的植物观点。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2011, Intersections of Biology and Mathematical and Physical Sciences. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow whose plan involves innovation at the intersection of biology with physics and applied mathematics. The research and training plan for this fellowship to Fulton Rockwell is entitled, "Is water lost from plant leaves as a liquid or a vapor?? The host institutions for this research are Cornell University and University of Chicago; and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Abraham Stroock and Charles Kevin Boyce.A fundamental gap in our understanding of leaf structure and function is whether transpiration follows a predominantly vapor or liquid path between the leaf veins and the `valves' on the leaf surface, the stomata. Answering this question will inform not only our understanding of leaf function, but also stomatal regulation of transpiration and the contributions of leaf structure to instantaneous water use efficiency, that is, carbon gained per water molecule transpired. The dominant mode of transport inside transpiring leaves remains an open question precisely because it occurs at the intersection of biology, chemical thermodynamics and transport phenomena. To address the question of competition between liquid and vapor, a combination of modeling and experimental determination of the internal geometry and material properties of leaves is being employed. Training in coupled heat and mass transport is provided by the Stroock lab at Cornell University, whose members combine expertise in chemical engineering and microfluidics with an interest in bio-mimetic design. Expertise in obtaining structural information from analysis of micro-CT scans of leaves comes from training in the Boyce lab, at the University of Chicago, which seeks to reconstruct the physiology of fossil plants based on structure-function relations observed in extant lineages. Broader impacts include developing educational materials appropriate to both adults and school groups on the life of trees that incorporate a perspective on plants informed by the research results.