Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Informatics for FY 2003

Mcgill, Brian J, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

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 "Exploring how the growth of populations changes across the range of a species." This project explores the variation in population dynamics across a species range, using ecoinformatics tools (e.g. spatial statistics, GIS and fitting nonlinear dynamical systems) applied to the Breeding Bird Survey. The research further explores systematic spatial variation in the growth rate, spatio-temporal autocorrelation in the noise, and connections to climate and dispersal.