Conference title: 17th International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (DNA17) Location: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA Dates: September 19?23, 2011 Website: http://dna17.caltech.edu
Summary This is an unsolicited proposal for 12,000 USD for student travel support for the 17th International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (DNA17). The primary purpose of the proposal is to give travel assistance to students who are giving oral or poster presentations at the conference. The selection procedure for travel awards is described in detail below and is designed to give priority to women and underrepresented minorities, and to research quality. Approximately 20 successful student applicants, from US institutions (excluding Caltech), will be funded for travel and accommodation, with an expected average award of 600 USD per student.
Intellectual Merit The annual International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (DNAx) is the premier forum where scientists with diverse backgrounds come together with the common purpose of advancing the engineering and science of biology and chemistry from the point of view of computer science, physics, and mathematics. Continuing this tradition, the 17th International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (DNA17), under the auspices of the International Society for Nanoscale Science, Computation and Engineering (ISNSCE), will focus on the most recent experimental and theoretical results that promise the greatest impact. A steady stream of papers in the field appear in Nature and Science, as well as other top journals such as Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Chemistry, Nature Biotechnology, Angewandte Chemie, JACS, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review Letters, SIAM Journal on Computing ? and the authors of these papers regularly attend DNAx conferences to present their work in a preliminary form.
Broader Impact By funding travel to students we are actively encouraging and incentivizing a new generation of researchers to attend the conference. We are giving special priority to women and minority applicants whose papers or posters were accepted at the conference. Students who attend DNA17 will get exposure to early versions of work that will go on to be published in top venues and, furthermore, they will have the opportunity to interact with, and potentially collaborate with, researchers who are producing work of the highest quality.
The annual International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming is the premier forum where scientists with diverse backgrounds come together with the common purpose of advancing the engineering and science of biology and chemistry from the point of view of computer science, physics, and mathematics. Continuing this tradition, the 17th International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (DNA17), under the auspices of the International Society for Nanoscale Science, Computation and Engineering (ISNSCE), focused on the most recent experimental and theoretical results that promise the greatest impact. Research in DNA computing and molecular programming draws together mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, biology, and nanotechnology to address the analysis, design, and synthesis of information-based molecular systems. The conference showcases research in all areas that relate to biomolecular computing using DNA and/or other molecules, including but not restricted to: (1) algorithms and models of computation for biomolecular systems; (2) control of molecular folding and self-assembly to construct nanostructures; (3) demonstration of switches, gates, devices, and circuits; (4) molecular motors and molecular robotics; (5) computational processes in vitro and in vivo; (6) studies of fault-tolerance and error correction; (7) synthetic biology and in vitro evolution; (8) software tools for analysis, simulation, and design; (9) applications in engineering, physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. There is a unique blend of theory and practice at DNA conferences, from a range of academic disciplines; the conference explicitly encourages theory orientated papers, experimentally oriented papers, and mixes of both. Interdisciplinarity is engrained into the goals of the conference. The annual international conference has acted as a unifying voice giving coherency and direction, while keeping a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary work. The conference series began in 1995 after the landmark work by Leonard Adleman, who solved an instance of the Hamiltonian path problem using DNA molecules, opening the door to a new field. Since then, theory and practice have progressed rapidly with the DNA conference series staying as the field’s premier forum where progress and new breakthroughs are reported. The conference has grown in size, from a small workshop with 6 oral presentations at Princeton in 1995, to a much larger international conference with over 30 oral presentations and 190 registered participants at DNA17 in 2011. A steady stream of papers in the field appear in prestigious journals such as Nature and Science, the authors of which regularly attend DNA conferences to present their work in a preliminary form. This grant helped support the attendance of 31 students and postdocs (nearly half of whom were women or under-represented minorities) to the 17th International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming. Students presented (or discussed) posters, listened to (or gave) talks, participated in (or organized) impromptu scientific topic sessions, attended (and asked questions at) a series of panel discussions, and more than anything else, interacted with other students from diverse fields to explore the world of possibilities that so fascinates them. Furthermore, they had the opportunity to interact with, and potentially collaborate with, established researchers who are producing work of the highest quality. A full day of tutorials at the beginning of the conference facilitated students’ understanding of work from a variety of fields.
