This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award will provide graduate students with the mathematical and computational training necessary to excel in the collaborative world of quantitative bioscience and make a positive impact on society through the application of their research. Quantitative biology is a transformative approach to bioscience and bioengineering research, which embraces a combination of quantitative skills and biological insight applied to previously intractable research problems.
Intellectual Merit: Led by the University of Colorado Biofrontiers Institute, eight science, engineering and math departments will collaborate to address the national need for both interdisciplinary and quantitative training at the graduate level. IQ Biology will create new infrastructure for interdisciplinary graduate programs by providing a mechanism to bring trainees directly into interdisciplinary cohorts and remove hurdles for trainees participating in courses and research that cross departmental and college boundaries. Additionally, trainees will participate in innovation training activities through industry internships, non-academic mentors, symposia, and multidisciplinary team collaborations with faculty and business school colleagues.
Broader Impacts: This IGERT project will help define a new approach to graduate education, catalyze institutional change, foster innovation, encourage global thinking and engage the public in scientific discovery. IQ Biology will create cohorts of graduate students who have disciplinary depth and are uniquely qualified to cross academic boundaries throughout their careers. Building on the University?s commitment to increase diversity in STEM disciplines, IQ Biology works with CU-Boulder?s successful programs to recruit and retain students from underrepresented groups.
IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to establish new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries, and to engage students in understanding the processes by which research is translated to innovations for societal benefit.
