This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY 2005. The fellowship supports research and training at the postdoctoral level at the intersection of biology and the informational, computational, mathematical, and statistical sciences. The goal of the fellowship is to provide training to a young scientist in preparation for a career in biological informatics in which research and education will be integrated. There is an increasing need for training in biological informatics at all occupational levels, and it is expected that Fellows trained through these fellowships will play important roles in training the future workforce.
The research and training plan for this fellowship is entitled "Exploring the relationship between landscape variation and genetic diversity in eastern North American woodland salamanders." This research investigates geographic patterns of genetic variation and species diversity in woodland salamanders of the genus Plethodon. It integrates natural-history collection, population-genetic, and environmental data from hundreds of populations using geographic information systems (GIS), and explores the extent to which landscape ecology has influenced spatial patterns of genetic divergence and speciation in the group. The research builds upon the Fellow's graduate training in molecular phylogenetics and also permits him to gain new analytical skills in spatial ecological analyses and museum-based informatics. Integration of these fields strengthens the link between natural-history museum collections and emerging technologies in evolutionary ecology and prepares him for an academic research program in biodiversity informatics.
