ISMB Conference Support for Students & Young Scientists

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

The Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference is the annual meeting of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB). The ISMB conference has provided an annual forum for disseminating the latest developments in bioinformatics since 1993, thus serving as a key vehicle for achievement of the Society's mission. Past ISMB conferences have drawn attendees from as many as 38 countries, and up to 2136 attendees. Since 2000 the conference location has been purposefully alternated between North America, Europe, and non-North American/non-European sites to foster international exchange and collaboration. ISMB 2006 is being held in Fortaleza, Brazil, August 6-10, 2006. As a multidisciplinary conference rich in diversity, ISMB brings together students, researchers, faculty, and staff, all of whom share a focus on computer science, molecular biology, biology, mathematics and/or statistics. ISMB focuses on research centered on actual biological problems rather than simply theoretical calculations, and attendees effectively discuss and distribute the latest developments in "intelligent systems for molecular biology." Intelligent systems include any software which goes beyond straightforward, closed-form algorithms or standard database technologies, and encompasses those that view data in a symbolic fashion, learn from examples, consolidate multiple levels of abstraction, or synthesize results to be cognitively tractable to a human, including the development and application of advanced computational methods for biological problems. This award provides funding to assist students and junior researchers in attending ISMB 2006. The knowledge gained and the contacts made will have an important impact downstream on the state of computational biology in the US, particularly in forging new ties with our Latin and South American partners.