Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Informatics for FY 2003

Ogle, Kiona, Princeton NJ

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 "Bayesian melding of ecological models and data: linking plant physiology and population processes." A framework is being established for linking plant physiology and population processes and uses the stochastic PHYSPOP model and Bayesian melding as a model system. A database from the NSF LTER network is being compiled, and Bayesian melding, PHYSPOP and the database combined to quantify key linkages between physiological and population quantities for a variety of species and habitats.