This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Informatics for fiscal year 2003. 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. These fellowships provide opportunities for interdisciplinary research and educational activities in biology and informatics to a wide range of recent doctoral recipients. 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 is entitled "Case studies in coevolution: testing the escape and radiate hypothesis using statistical phylogenetics." Statistical phylogenetics and computational biology are being used to test the escape and radiate hypothesis for plants and their insect herbivores. Phylogenetic trees from three model plant-insect systems are being generated to test the generality of this hypothesis for species diversification; and a test is being developed to examine adaptive radiations.
