The goal of this project is for the PIs to join the Physics of Living Systems Student Research Network (PoLS SRN) to foster national and international interactions among scientists interested in research at the interpface of physics and biology. Harvard has a long tradition of supporting research and education at the interface of biology and physics with successful efforts originating from both physics and biology departments. One of the strengths of graduate student training at Harvard is the sheer breadth of Harvard's scientific community. Joining the PoLS network will leverage these diverse and often experimental experiences at Harvard at a national and international level to the benefit of other PoLS institutions. In return, Harvard efforts in the physics of living systems will benefit from complementary intellectual, educational and research activities at other PoLS institutions. The PIs also expect that the PoLS network will have synergistic effects at a purely local Harvard level, especially between the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard Physics Department, and the FAS Center for Systems Biology, which host the participating faculty. The future of life sciences lies is in the hand of young researchers, and increasingly in the hands of scientists whose training spans multiple disciplines including physics, engineering, and computer sciences. The PoLS network brings together universities in the US and abroad who share the vision that research and training partnerships across institutions and countries will harness previously unexploited complementary intellectual and educational strengths. The PIs share this view and propose that Harvard join the PoLS network. Harvard's participation will create new student-led collaborations and will strengthen existing ones, leading to new insights into general principles that help to explain the structure, behavior, and evolution of cells and organisms. The next generation of researchers working in the life sciences needs to be versed in both the methodologies of the physical sciences and the experimental practices of molecular biology. Bridging the cultures of physics and biology resembles (and benefits from) bridging other cultural differences, for example between institutions and countries. Traveling to another laboratory for a research internship or to a workshop exposes students to a different intellectual environment and to new problems and techniques. These encounters catalyze a profound change in students' appreciation for approaches outside their original expertise and motivate them to be more fluent in the language of a different field. The proposed trans-institutional and trans-national network will create a new community that fosters students creativity and encourages their curiosity and fearlessness in developing new approaches. For the same reasons students from underrepresented minority and disadvantaged backgrounds will particularly benefit from the proposed activities in the PoLS network.
This award is designated as a Science Across Virtual Institutes (SAVI) award and is being co-funded by NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering as well as by the Physics of Living Systems Program in the Physics Division, the Molecular Biophysics Program in Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, and the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities in MPS.
