IRES Track I: Comparative Anatomy and Functional Morphology in Cuvier's Paris

功能形态学和比较解剖学是关于人体如何在人类和其他动物中工作的研究，这两个学科的研究始于巴黎的收藏品，至今仍在继续。在这个IRES项目中，新一代学生将被教导使用功能形态学和比较生物学中的尖端工具来测试跨物种的假说，这是许多对STEM领域的职业感兴趣的学生感兴趣的科目，从而试图在一个形成了过去许多世纪学科基础的地方激发21世纪的劳动力增长。每年将从不同的背景招募大约7名本科生(包括从服务于历史上代表性不足的群体的学院和大学招募的学生)，培训他们的技术，包括活体动物行为、肌肉解剖、骨骼、牙齿和头骨的分析，最后是如何根据化石的形状来推断灭绝物种的行为和能力。学生不仅将学习这些技术技能，而且通过与资深教授和他们的国际博士后研究员和研究生团队合作，他们将学习跨学术团队和文化合作的“软技能”。学生将获得这些技能，并在专业演示文稿和潜在的出版物上获得作者资格，给他们可能改变生活的经历，这可能构成他们继续追求STEM兴趣和职业的核心。该项目的总体目标是培训不同的学生在新兴的21世纪功能形态和比较解剖学技术方面。学生们将在美国派的实验室(在北卡罗来纳州立大学)接受关键技术培训，然后被陪同到巴黎，在自然历史博物馆他的一名合作者的实验室工作，在那里他们将接触到数百年的藏品和该地区的其他生物研究机构。在那里，在教授和他们的高级博士后研究员和研究生的指导下，IRES的学生将开发独立或小组项目，专注于功能形态和比较解剖学研究问题的现代方法。这可能包括1)在几个动物学设施进行行为研究和实验(包括进入一群老鼠狐猴，或与大竹狐猴等物种合作，这些物种不是在法国以外圈养的)，2)解剖新鲜标本或来自博物馆庞大液体收藏的样本，以及3)现代物种的骨学或牙科材料分析，4)著名的化石收藏品也保存在这个具有历史意义的博物馆藏品中。这些研究可能最终允许IRES的学生利用这些关于现存物种的行为和解剖的知识来评估对灭绝物种的适应。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Functional Morphology and Comparative Anatomy are the studies of how bodies work in humans and other animals, disciplines of research that began and continue, to this day, in the collections in Paris. In this IRES project, new generations of students will be taught to test hypotheses across species using cutting-edge tools in functional morphology and comparative biology, subjects that are of interest to the great number of students interested in careers in STEM fields, thus attempting to inspire this focal 21st Century work-force growth in a place that formed the foundation of the discipline over the last many centuries. Approximately seven undergraduate students a year will be recruited from diverse backgrounds (including recruitment from colleges and universities that serve historically underrepresented groups) and trained in techniques that span live animal behavior, muscle dissection, analyses of bones, teeth and skulls and finally how to make inferences about the behavior and abilities of extinct species from the shapes of their fossils. Not only will students learn these technical skills, but through working with senior professors and their international teams of postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, they will learn the "soft skills" of collaborating across academic teams and cultures. Students will gain these skills and earn authorship on professional presentations and potentially publications, giving them the possibly life changing experiences that may form the core of their continued pursuit of STEM interests and careers.The overarching goal of this project is to train diverse cohorts of students in burgeoning 21st century functional morphology and comparative anatomy techniques. Students will be trained in key techniques the US PI's lab (at North Carolina State University) prior to being accompanied to Paris to work in the lab of one of his collaborators at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle where they will have access to centuries-old collections and the other biological research institutions in the region. There, with the mentorship of the professors and their senior postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, the IRES students will develop independent or group projects that focus on modern approaches to functional morphology and comparative anatomy research questions. These may include 1) behavioral research and experimentation at several zoological facilities (including access to a colony of mouse lemurs, or work with species like the greater bamboo lemur, that are not held in captivity outside of France), 2) dissection work with fresh specimens or specimens from the museum's expansive fluid collection, and analyses of osteological or dental material from 3) modern species or 4) the famous fossil collections also housed in this historically significant museum collection. These studies may ultimately allow the IRES students to use this knowledge about the behavior and anatomy of extant species to evaluate the adaptations of extinct species.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.