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 "Bioinformatic approaches to spatial and temporal analysis of Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) data that relate animal movement to biodiversity." This research is developing informatic tools to fit statistical distributions to large spatial data sets. The are then being used in conjunction with mechanistic models to test hypotheses across multiple scales of biological organization relating spatial variation in gray wolf (Canis lupus) movements to patterns of community diversity in Yellowstone National Park.
The Fellow plans a career of collaborative research in environmental science and mathematics. The proposed postdoctoral fellowship is strengthening his foundation in theoretical ecology and data analysis.
