This action funds an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2007. 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 US science. 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 "Phylogenetic, ecological and life-history determinants of a globally distributed plant disease complex." This project is the first thorough survey on global pathogen diversity outside medicine or agriculture and uses the anther-smut disease of caryophyllaceous plants. Existing plant herbarium collections are being surveyed to determine life-history correlates of disease, controlling for phylogeny, geography, and host-shifts. The sponsoring scientist for the project is Michael E. Hood at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst
The training goals are in disease ecology and the interactions with plant mating systems for building a conceptual framework for novel research.
