Funds will be used to support the travel and participation of American graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in a symposium entitled "Inside the Vertebrate Nose: Evolution, Structure and Function" that will be held within the larger 10th International Congress of Vertebrate Morphologists (ICVM) in Barcelona, Spain in July of 2013. This symposium will bring together anatomists, paleontologists, anthropologists, and engineers to focus on improving understanding of the nose, a structure of vital importance to olfaction and respiration. Relative to other regions of the vertebrate head (e.g. the eyes, ears, and mouth), the nose has received little scientific attention. Because the major functions of the nose are dependent on airflow and the internal anatomy of the nose affects airflow, a complete picture of nasal function requires scientists that study both anatomy (i.e. biologists) and flow dynamics (i.e. engineers) to collaborate within an evolutionary and comparative anatomy context. Over the past decade, advances in imaging and computation have generated new data on both nasal anatomy and airflow dynamics that need to be integrated. For example, high resolution computed tomography (CT) scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have allowed unprecedented views of the complex internal anatomy of the skull in a wide array of vertebrates. Similarly, advances in computational fluid dynamics have been used to simulate airflow within the nose and to study how the nose actually works to transport odorants (smells) to different regions of the nasal cavity. This meeting will be the first to bring together physical and life scientists who study the nose in a broad array of vertebrates, both extant and extinct. Novel ideas and new approaches are likely to emerge and young scientists (graduate students and postdoctoral fellows) will benefit from participating. The ICVM is an ideal venue as it is held only once every four years and is very well attended by a diverse group of vertebrate biologists.
Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars who participate in the meeting will enhance their professional skills and broaden their professional contacts. Women and students from underrepresented minorities in science will be actively recruited as participants by advertising through professional society meetings and websites, as well as via listservs. By bringing together researchers from disparate fields, the symposium is likely to lead to productive discussions and collaborations that are excellent examples of integrative, cross-disciplinary science. Furthermore, this symposium and the publications that result from it can contribute to the current state of knowledge in the areas of inhalation toxicology, intranasal drug delivery, and artificial olfaction. For example, advanced computer models of respiration could be used for predicting drug delivery pathways in the human nose, while an improved understanding of olfaction in other mammal species may reveal numerous bio-inspired design principles for building synthetic smell detectors.
The funds supported a day-long symposium entitled, "Inside the Vertebrate Nose: Evolution, Structure and Function", on July 11, 2013 within the larger 10th International Congress of Vertebrate Morphologists (ICVM) in Barcelona, Spain. The symposium brought together for the first time anatomists, paleontologists, anthropologists and most importantly, engineers, to focus on improving our understanding of the nose, a structure of vital importance to olfaction and respiration. Funding was used to support the participation of six students and postdoctoral scholars (4 graduate, 2 post-doctoral) to attend and present their research at the symposium. The six students were able to present their research to a large group of experts on various aspects of the vertebrate nose. In addition, the students were able to learn from the oral and poster presentations and had ample opportunities to network with leading scientists in vertebrate morphology. They also each have contributed a manuscript to a special issue of a journal, The Anatomical Record, devoted to our symposium that will be published in 2014. A survey was sent to symposium participants approximately 30 days after the event, and the results indicate a very high level of satisfaction with the symposium. At least 17 papers will be published in 2014 that are a direct result of the symposium.
