2011 Waterman Award

美国国家科学基金会(NSF)自豪地宣布，布朗大学生态与进化生物学系助理教授凯西·邓恩被选为2011年度艾伦·T·沃特曼奖获得者。邓恩是一位进化生物学家，致力于生命的进化、发展和多样性，主要致力于使用系统发育工具来理解基因、发育机制、形式、功能和进化之间的联系。一年一度的沃特曼奖表彰由NSF资助的任何科学或工程领域的杰出年轻研究人员。候选人的年龄不能超过35岁，也不能超过获得博士学位的七年，而且必须因个人成就而脱颖而出。除了一枚奖章外，获奖者还将在三年内获得50万美元的赠款，用于其所在领域的科学研究或高级研究。邓恩是一位才华横溢的进化生物学家，他最著名的工作是生物系统(特别是殖民地生物)的功能专门化和动物关系的研究。他在系统发育学和进化发育生物学方面做出了许多意想不到的原创性贡献，包括对管水母细胞复杂的菌落水平发育的描述。他对鲜为人知的生物体的研究是通过将现场和实验室研究与新的计算工具相结合来解决经典问题而实现的。邓恩与NSF有着长期的合作关系，甚至有更长的获奖历史。他获得了NSF研究生研究奖学金和博士论文改进奖学金，以及来自Pop Tech Science and Public Leaders和Kavli Frontiers of Science的奖学金。他与哈佛大学、堪萨斯大学和蒙特利湾水族馆研究所的同事一起，参与了美国国家科学基金会的组装生命树计划的一个大型拨款项目，根据该计划，研究人员正寻求利用系统基因组学工具重建动物生命树的历史。他的第一本书《生物学家的实用计算》于去年出版。

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is proud to announce the selection of Brown University's Casey Dunn, an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, to receive its 2011 Alan T. Waterman Award. Dunn, an evolutionary biologist, works on the evolution, development, and diversity of life, focusing primarily on the use of phylogenetic tools to understand the links between genes, developmental mechanisms, form, function, and evolution. The annual Waterman award recognizes an outstanding young researcher in any field of science or engineering supported by NSF. Candidates may not be more than 35 years old, or seven years beyond receiving a doctorate, and must stand out for their individual achievements. In addition to a medal, the awardee receives a grant of $500,000 over a 3-year period for scientific research or advanced study in their field. Dunn is a brilliant evolutionary biologist, and is most well known for his work on functional specialization in biological systems (particularly colonial organisms) and studies of animal relationships. He has made many unexpected and original contributions to phylogenetics and evolutionary developmental biology, including the description of complex colony-level development in siphonophores. His research with poorly known organisms is made possible by integrating field and laboratory research with novel computational tools to address classical questions. Dunn has a long relationship with NSF, and an even longer history receiving awards. He received a NSF graduate research fellowship and a doctoral dissertation improvement grant, as well as fellowships from Pop Tech Science and Public Leadership, and Kavli Frontiers of Science. With colleagues at Harvard, University of Kansas, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, he is part of a large grant project from NSF's Assembling the Tree of Life program, under which researchers are seeking to reconstruct, with phylogenomic tools, the history of the animal tree of life. His first book, Practical Computing for Biologists, was published last year.