Project Profile
Integrative Graduate Training of Neuroscientists and Computational/Physical Scientists
University of Minnesota at Twin Cities
Abstract
This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award will support the establishment of a broadly- based graduate training program that will equip students to use relevant the technologies and insights of computational and physical science in investigation of fundamental problems in neuroscience. The project will be a joint effort… more »
This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award will support the establishment of a broadly- based graduate training program that will equip students to use relevant the technologies and insights of computational and physical science in investigation of fundamental problems in neuroscience. The project will be a joint effort of 24 faculty from 8 departments, with collaborative research interests ranging from use of numerical methods in modeling of limb motor control to modeling of synaptic communication in the retina and to 3-dimensional representation of neurophysiological data such as those derived from functional magnetic resonance imaging.
NSF support will provide stipends for 13 graduate students each year who will enroll in either the neuroscience or scientific computation Ph.D. programs. Educational opportunities include required six-week summer course in cell and molecular neurobiology, a new year-long course in scientific computation, and a new seminar series in computational neuroscience that will bring 12 speakers from academia and industry to the campus each year. After completing short projects in the research groups of three participating faculty (lab rotations), students will choose two mentors for their thesis research, one from the 12 participating neuroscience faculty, the other from among the 12 computational science faculty. In addition to use of existing and separate recruitment efforts of the two Ph.D. programs, the IGERT-sponsored program will benefit from joint efforts of participating faculty and an ongoing collaborative effort with the Florida A&M University.
IGERT is a new, NSF-wide program whose goal is to sponsor the establishment of innovative, research-based graduate programs that will train a diverse group of new scientists and engineers to be well-prepared for varied careers in the private and public sectors. IGERT provides an opportunity for the development of new, well-focuse d multidisciplinary programs that bridge traditional organizational barriers, uniting faculty from several departments or institutions to establish a highly-interactive collaborative environment for both training and research. In its first year, the program will provide support to 17 institutions for new or nascent programs that collectively span all areas of science, engineering and mathematics eligible for support by the NSF. « less
