Announcement of Competitive
Renewal:
The Cornell IGERT Program in
Nonlinear Systems
The Cornell IGERT Program in
Nonlinear Systems has received renewed funding from the NSF. We anticipate
awarding 8-12 two-year fellowships for students who will begin the Program in
the Fall of 2004. Fellowship stipends will be $27,500 for a twelve-month
period.
NSF fellowship support is
restricted to US citizens or permanent residents.
The
Nonlinear Systems Program is designed to foster research broadly on nonlinear
systems that combines theory, computation and empirical data.
Four
thematic areas will be emphasized:
1. Complex Networks:
We are
exploring such topics as the World Wide Web, populations with hidden structure
(e.g., the network of injection drug users in a major city), the resilience of
ecosystems composed of hundreds of interacting species and mathematical
patterns in the statistics of forest fires, earthquakes, and blackouts.
2.
Machines and Organisms - Locomotion and Manipulation:
We view
organisms as part of a continuum of solutions to the mechanical challenges of
locomotion, flight and manipulation. Comparing and contrasting moving machines
and organisms enables us to understand both better.
3. Biological Pattern Formation:
Studies of
cardiac cellular electrical activity are being conducted during catastrophic
rhythm disturbances of the heart, such as ventricular fibrillation. High resolution 2D and 3D activation
and repolarization maps are constructed using recordings obtained from
nanofabricated multielectrode recording arrays. The resulting spatiotemporal patterns are being analyzed
with the tools of nonlinear dynamics.
4. Gene Regulation and Systems Biology:
Through the
use of theoretical models and large-scale computation, and leveraging the
enormous experimental investment by the biology community, we plan to develop
biologically useful theories of large subsystems of cellular function,
specifically in the areas of gene regulation, manufacture of RNA and proteins,
and cell signaling.
Program requirements consist of two
courses in nonlinear dynamics and computational methods, a year-long
interdisciplinary project, participation in an IGERT seminar, a summer
internship and completion of a Ph.D. minor.
Applications are coordinated through
participating graduate fields at Cornell. Applicants should describe their
interest in the IGERT program as part of the statement of purpose in their
Cornell graduate school application.
They should also complete the contact
form on the main program web site:
(click on IGERT Fellowship and then
Application).
Direct Inquiries to John
Guckenheimer at gucken@cam.cornell.edu