Growth, Form, and Self-Organization

该项目旨在支持美国顶尖科学家参与计划于2017年8月22日至12月20日在英国剑桥的艾萨克·牛顿数学科学研究所进行的“生长、形态和自组织”研究项目。具体目的是通过支持和鼓励更多美国顶尖研究人员的参与来延长计划的活动，其中包括12名初级研究人员，否则他们将无法参与。牛顿研究所计划的项目是为了纪念达西·汤普森颇具影响力的著作《生长与形态》(On Growth And Form)--可以说是关于生命系统物理的第一篇论文--的百年诞辰，将他的工作精神中的各种当代探究线索集中在一起，并展望理解生物学的未来。该计划将促进物理学家、应用数学家、计算机科学家、生物学家和其他对形态学感兴趣的研究人员之间的新的互动和合作。它将致力于开辟富有成效的研究路线，并邀请新的方法来解决生命和无生命系统中的形式和功能的基本问题和特征。该计划将提供在不同背景和不同规模的形状动态的不同方面，在不同学科内和跨学科之间进行思想交流的机会。项目参与者将培养并沉浸在一种充满活力和非正式的研究氛围中，有利于创新想法、大胆主张和潜在的突破，并形成新型的富有成效的合作。该研究所为这种“发酵”提供了理想的环境，并积极促进多样性。该方案和该研究所共同努力，吸引和确保女性研究人员的参与。还将投入大量的努力和资金来支持初级研究人员和学生，以确保产生持久的影响。所有讲座和研讨会都将向公众开放、拍摄、存档，并可在研究所的网站上免费查阅。计划中的四个专题研讨会将为分享和发展想法提供进一步的机会，这些想法将通过会议记录、论文和新出现的研究方向和努力进行传播。

This project is to support leading United States scientists to participate in the research program on "Growth, Form, and Self-Organization", planned over the period of August 22 - December 20, 2017, at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge, UK. The specific aim is to extend the planned activities by supporting and encouraging participation by a larger number of leading American researchers, including 12 junior researchers, who would otherwise not be able to participate. The planned program at the Newton Institute is to mark the centenary of D'Arcy Thompson's influential book, "On Growth and Form" - arguably the first treatise on the physics of living systems - by bringing various contemporary strands of inquiry in the spirit of his work into focus and to look into the future of understanding biology. The program will stimulate new interactions and collaborations between physicists, applied mathematicians, computer scientists, biologists, and other researchers interested in morphology, broadly understood. It will aim to open fruitful lines of inquiry and invite new approaches to address the fundamental issues and features of form and function in living as well as inanimate systems. The program will provide opportunities for cross-fertilization of ideas within and across disciplines on various aspects of shape dynamics in diverse contexts and at diverse scales. Program participants will foster, and in turn be immersed in, an energetic and informal research atmosphere, conducive to innovative ideas, daring propositions, and potential breakthroughs, and to forming new kinds of fruitful collaborations. The Institute offers an ideal environment for such a "ferment" and actively promotes diversity. The program and the Institute work together to attract and ensure participation of women researchers. Considerable efforts and funds will also be devoted to supporting junior researchers and students, assuring lasting impact. All lectures and seminars will be open to the public, filmed, archived and made freely accessible on the Institute's website. The four planned thematic workshops will provide further opportunities for sharing and developing ideas, which will be disseminated through proceedings, papers, and newly emerged research directions and endeavors.