The analysis of anatomical shapes lies at the heart of much of biological research, and methods for shape analysis have found widespread use in fields as diverse as evolution, forensics, medicine, systematics, biomechanics, anthropology, and many others. This project funds enhancement strategies for developing the pre-eminent software package for shape analysis: geomorph. Geomorph promotes an appreciation of the necessary stages of shape analysis, and an understanding of the mathematical and statistical machinery required to evaluate hypotheses in high-dimensional data. The grant supports continued development of new analytical methods and graphical tools to be implemented in geomorph, which will expand the scope of research questions that scientists can address. New methods will transcend the focus of specific biological disciplines, and will broadly stimulate research in any field where shape analysis is important. Additionally, a new method of multivariate model comparison developed here has the potential to transform how we make scientific inquiry in the age of big data.
Geomorph is widely used by biologists with over 1,500 authors of 1,000 citations since its 2013 release. This grant will thus impact thousands of biologists who require fast, accurate, and flexible software to accomplish shape analyses for their research. In addition to research software and methods development, the grant will also help train the next generation of scientists through workshops and other activities. Workshops will be taught on several continents to provide maximal impact on the scientific community through these training and educational activities. These courses provide opportunities for scientists to learn and apply geomorph in their own research while seeking guidance directly from the software's developers. The project also supports open-source science by providing the scientific community with access to all software updates via its Github repository. The project will train undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers in research. The PIs will continue to support undergraduate research for underrepresented minorities, through Iowa State's LSAMP and McNair programs (PI Adams), and through the Diversity and Inclusion Council of Chatham University (PI Collyer).
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
