This action funds an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2004. The goal of the fellowship is to increase the participation of minority scientists at the postdoctoral level and to prepare them for positions of scientific leadership in academia and industry. To attain this goal, the fellowship provides opportunities for postdoctoral training and research of the highest quality to recent doctoral recipients. It is expected that Fellows supported through these fellowships will play important roles in training of the future workforce.
The research and training plan is entitled "Understanding the early evolutionary radiation of placental mammals through dental development, morphology, and function." Ecologically generalized Cretaceous mammals rapidly evolved into an array of body sizes and ecologies, following the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs. Patterns and process of this episode are being investigated using computer-simulated models based on developmental and ecological principles and a fossil database from North America (80-50 million years ago). The training component includes developmental biology, quantitative-analytical methods, and theoretical modeling.
