The Association for Computer Machinery (ACM) International Conference on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (ACM-BCB) is aimed at providing a common environment to bridge important interdisciplinary research areas in computer science, mathematics, statistics, biology, bioinformatics, and biomedicine and an interactive forum which brings together superb researchers, practitioners, and students from around the world to promote scientific understanding and findings in computational bioscience. The meeting provides an opportunity for researchers from very different disciplines to form new collaborations and research programs. The proposed ?Women in Bioinformatics? initiative at ACM-BCB 2011 promotes broad participation from underrepresented groups in this important event and help develop the 21st century workforce in the computer science, biological science, biomedical science and other interdisciplinary areas.
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE As the annual conference of ACM SIGBioinformatics, the ACM International Conference on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (ACM-BCB) conference is aimed at providing a common platform to bridge important interdisciplinary research areas in computer science, mathematics, statistics, biology, bioinformatics, and biomedicine and an interactive forum which brings together superb researchers, practitioners, and students from around the world to promote scientific understanding and findings in bioscience. The NSF grant supported the "women in bioinformatics" initiative at ACM-BCB 2011 which promoted broad participation from underrepresented groups in this important event. We were able to support 21 female and minority students to attend the conference. These students were not able to attend the conference otherwise. We held a panel on women in bioinformatics with six distinguished female professors. The session was well attended and received. Two keynote speeches by female leading researchers were supported by the award as well. Because of its success, the initiative has become a tradition at the ACM BCB conference and of the newly established ACM Special Interest Group in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology in the following years. It fostered a healthy and active community that is benefiting many students and young researchers. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE
