The biological mechanisms that generate biological rhythms are critical for life, as most organisms on earth have to adapt to cyclical changes in their environments. The time-scales associated with these changes vary widely, and thus so do the mechanisms that allow organisms to use them to predict their environments and survive. Identifying the fundamental principles associated with such diversity requires a broad range of intellectual inputs. The conference supported by this award will therefore bring a diverse group of investigators together from across the United States and Latin America, including senior scientists who are leaders in the field of biological rhythms and young investigators just beginning their training, to foster the exchange of ideas and to provide training and mentorship opportunities for the young investigators from Latin America. Senior US investigators will run in-depth discussion groups with young scientists from Latin America during a one-day workshop, and pairs of senior-junior scientists will then interact one-on-one throughout the following week at an associated conference. This not only provides excellent mentorship opportunities for the young scientists, but also the potential for new ideas for the senior scientists that come from fresh perspectives. A high proportion of the US scientists that will be supported are women, and the international collaborations between US and Latin American scientists will promote growth in the field for investigators across the Americas.
This is a small meeting that will pair senior US and Latin American scientists with graduate students and postdoctoral associates from Latin America during an intense, one-day workshop in Valparaiso, Chile, followed by continuing interactions between mentors and trainees during a subsequent meeting on the topic of biological rhythms. There will be four roundtable discussions on 1) Neural Circuits Associated with Sleep; 2) Sleep and Human Performance, 3) Neural Models of Rhythmic Physiology, and 4) Mechanisms of Entrainment. Each will be jointly chaired by US and Latin American senior scientists, and attended by graduate students and postdoctoral associates from Latin America. The senior scientists will briefly discuss their research, followed by intense discussion groups with the students. Each senior scientist will be paired with a young scientist and expected to have follow-up interactions with that student during a subsequent meeting Chronobiology that all participants will attend. In the past, these interactions have led to multiple, collaborative papers that include both the senior and junior scientists. This meeting, like those, is expected to greatly benefit both senior and junior scientists across the Americas and lead to significant discoveries in the field of biological rhythms.
