Post on 15-Jan-2016
description
Major goals of the meeting
• Provide an overview of NESCent’s mission and accomplishments
• Discuss schedule for site visit review and renewal
• Discuss issues of institutional support
• Our goal is to have a MOU in place before March 2008 site visit.
NESCent History1 – National Call for proposals from NSF to establish a National Center for Evolutionary Synthesis. Loosely based on NCEAS, Ecological Synthesis Center.
2 – Awarded to Triangle Universities in 2004. Awarded in part because of great strength in Evolutionary Biology in the three Universities.
3 – Funding initiated in December 2004. Center reorganized in Fall of 2005 – differences in directions, management and leadership.
4 – First scientific activities in summer of 2005; moved into current offices in the fall of 2005.
NESCent in years 2 & 3
1 – Reaching potential as a place for evolutionary synthesis:full compliment of postdoctoral fellows and sabbatical scholars
full set of working groups & catalysis meetingsactive engagement with the community
2 – > 500 visitors to the center in year 2; > 800 in year 3;~ 250 scientists funded from the NESCent core grant in year 2;~ 500 funded in year 3
3 – Informatics program – recruited staff, developed infrastructure, initiated and participated in a number of major cyberinfrastructure initiatives, successfully applied for external funding
4 – EOG group developed new focus for outreach activitiesmore closely tied to the promotion of science of the center
5 – Developed administrative infrastructure to support activities of center
Kathleen Smith, Center Director
Todd Vision, Associate Director
Informatics
Brian Wiegmann,Associate Director EOG
Joel Kingsolver, Associate Director
Science & Synthesis
Karen Henry, Assistant Director
Administration
Hilmar LappAssistant Director
Informatics
ScientificReview Board
Richard O’GradyExecutive Director
AIBS
SeniorAdvisory
Board
Jon AumanSystems Admin Jack D’Ardenne
Computer technician
Xianhua LiuWeb/GUI
Project manager
Jim BalhoffResearch software
Developer
Jory WeintraubScience Education
Manager
Kristin JenkinsScience
CommunicationManager
Barbara MitchellOffice manager
Financial analyst
Jeff SturkeyLogistics Manager
Marcia PainterStaff Assistant
Student workersand temporary
employees
Surya DhullipallaDatabase
programmerDatabase Research
TBD
Ryan ScherleData repository
architect
Dave ClementsGMOD
NESCent Organizational Chart August, 2007
Science & Synthesis~ $5.8 million
Informatics~ $2.8 million
EOG~ $1.1 m
Administration & facilities~ $2.6 million
Overhead~ $2.6 million
NESCent core expenses – 5 year allocation
1
2
3
4
56
7
8
9
10
11
NESCent budget – subdivision
External fundingDuke University ~ $160,000 per year
External grants funded:
• NSF: Linking Evolution to Genomics Using Phenotype Ontologies (P. Mabee, M. Westerfield, T. Vision)
• NESCent Total Direct: $853,338 (subcontract) (June 2007- May 2010)
• NIH: Enhancement of the GBrowse Genome Annotation Browser (I. Holmes, L. Stein, T. Vision)
• NESCent Total Direct: $300,000 (subcontract) (April 2007 – March 2010)
• NIH: Development of the www.EcoliCommunity.org Information Resource (Jim Hu, T. Vision)• NESCent Total Direct: $30,550 (subcontract) (June 2007 – May 2009)
Total direct awarded: $1,183,888
External grants pending:
• NSF: A Digital Repository for Preservation and Sharing of Data Underlying Published Works in Evolutionary Biology (K. Smith, J. Greenberg, W. Michener, W. Piel)
• NESCent Total Direct $1,907,531 (June 2008 – May 2011)
• NSF: INTEROP: Creation of an International Virtual Data Center for the Biodiversity, Ecological and Environmental (W. Michener, K. Smith, others)
• NESCent Total Direct: $39,535 (subcontract) (January 2008 – December 2010)
• NSF: Evolution in the News Podcasts from the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (K. Smith)
• NESCent Total Direct Costs: $116,720 (November 2007 – October 2009)
Total direct pending: $2,063,786
University budget components
Description Total core grant External funded Total Funded
Duke direct 10,403,812.00$ 10,403,812.00$ Duke indirect 28% 2,041,580.00$ 2,041,580.00$ Duke total 12,445,392.00$ 12,445,392.00$
UNC direct 1,088,219.00$ 1,126,453.00$ 2,214,672.00$ UNC indirect ~ 26%* 287,931.00$ 274,078.00$ 562,009.00$ UNC total 1,376,150.00$ 1,400,531.00$ 2,776,681.00$
NCSU direct 814,815.00$ 814,815.00$ NCSU indirect 46% 278,183.00$ 278,183.00$ NCSU total 1,092,998.00$ 1,092,998.00$
Duke contribution Rent 330,000$ Discretionary Funds 480,000$ Director support 444,000$ Total 1,254,000$
NESCent time schedule
• October, 2007 – year 3 annual report due
• February, 2008 – site visit self study document due
• March, 2008 – year 4 site visit
• October, 2008 – renewal application due
• Fall, 2008, Duke begin recruitment for full time external Director
Types of institutional commitment
“Budget fluidity” – current budget structure leads to management difficulties. Are there alternative models?
• Difficult to have staff shared by institutions
• Activities run under different subcontracts subject to different regulations
Institutional support
• Triangle sabbatical scholars• Tangible support for Directors• Discretionary support for Center
activities
Science & Synthesis
Mission: To advance synthetic research that addresses fundamental questions in evolutionary biology
Joel Kingsolver (UNC)
NESCent is:
• A catalyst and facilitator of synthetic research for evolution
• A center for the national and international research community
• A great resource for the Triangle
Science Projects:What we support
• Catalysis Meetings Evolution in contemporary human populations: Medical, genetic and behavioral Implications
Selfish DNA and the genetic control of vector-borne diseases
• Working Groups An integrated database for fish evolution: from developmental genetics to phylogenetics
How does cognition evolve?
Science Projects:What we support
• Postdoctoral fellows Phylogeographical Information Science: Linking Phylogenies and Earth history
Building a framework for the study of cultural evolution
• Sabbatical Scholars A community approach to evolutionary theory
Designing and teaching an evolution curriculum for elementary students
Science Projects (through Sep 07)
• Catalysis Meetings 10• Working Groups 20• Postdoctoral fellows 17• Sabbatical Scholars 13• Hosted Meetings >30 > 1000 visiting researchers at
NESCent to date
Cross-disciplinarity of Science Projects
(through Aug 2007)
Molecular OrganismPopulati
on Phylogeny
Molecular 3 3 6 7
Organism 2 5 7
Population 9 6
Phylogeny 8
Productivity (through Sep 07)Product Sabbat Postdo
cWork Group
Catalysis Mtg
Other
Publications
43(6) 10(6) 19(16)
2(2) 4(5)
Software/ databases
1(3) 7 3(3) 7
Grants (proposals)
3 2 3(5) 3(8) 2(4)
Collaborations
5 8 4 6 9
NESCent in the Triangle
• Triangle working groups E.g. Clockwork: Redefining interfaces for molecular biology and paleontology
• Triangle scholars 8 to date (Duke, NCSU, UNC)
• Targeted sabbaticals: NC HMUs John Clamp (NCCU) Joe Fail (Johnson C. Smith U)
More NESCent in the Triangle
• Triangle collaborations DRYAD (UNC SILS) Evolutionary Genomics (Duke IGSP)
• Darwin Day Symposia • Triangle Participants, Year 3:
Duke 37 NCSU 19 UNC 25
People at NESCent (yrs 1-3)
Informatics Todd Vision (UNC)
• Support for sponsored science and scientists Maintaining high-end IT infrastructure Providing dedicated software developers Facilitating electronic collaboration
• Cyberinfrastructure for synthetic science Software usability and interoperability Data availability and exchange Training Activities are beyond the scope of individual researchers
In partnership with other major organizations
Generic Model Organism Database (GMOD) Project
• Common needs for Genome biologists who work with phylogenetic data,
genetic and phenotypic variation Evolutionary biologists who are deluged by genomic data Examples: Heliconius, Mimulus, Lemurs
• GMOD is a widely-used OS software suite Provide a full suite of inter-operable software
components for genomic databases A collaboration of major model organism databases such as
Flybase, MGD, SGD, TAIR & Wormbase• NESCent-GMOD partnership
To provide user support and help overcome barriers to adoption within the evolutionary genomics community
To extend functionality of GMOD toolkit for genetic and phenotypic variation, geographic information and phylogenetics
• Funded by 2 awards from NIHQuickTime™ and a
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Linking evolution to genomics using phenotype
ontologies• Two approaches to managing phenotype data
Unstructured, free-form descriptions and character matrices
Statements made using anatomical and trait ontologies, designed to capitalize on the semantic web
• In order for evolutionary biologists to use ontologies, we need Cross-species anatomy, phenotype, and taxonomic
ontologies Curation of legacy phenotype data Software and database tools for curators and end-users
• Funded by a $1.77M NSF Databases & Informatics award Emerged from a NESCent Working Group Collaboration with NCBO, high-profile community
dissemination activities
Hackathons• Intense collaborative programming sessions
• Promote an open-source and open-development model for scientific software
• Involve leading scientific software developers from around the world
• High-profile and high-impact• Held appx 1/yr
O|B|F
Informatics summer courses
• 10-day hands-on training in scientific programming skills
• Taught by int’l team of instructors
• Targeted at graduate students/postdocs, particularly women and URMs
• Topics Phyloinformatics Meta-analysis
2007 Phyloinformatics Summer Course
Google Summer of Code• Eleven students, each with at least one expert mentor,
working remotely around the world on open-source scientific software development Command-line tools for BioSQL Tree visualization and editing using Ajax Phylogenetic APIs in BioJava Multi-language bindings to the C++ NEXUS Class Library NeXML for representing NEXUS in XML XRate user interface and data visualization (2 projects) Phylogenetic data in GBrowse Calculation of divergence time priors Overlaying population frequency data on
GoogleMaps/GoogleEarth Software for making phylogenetically-informed
conservation decisions
Dryad: A digital repository for published data in evolutionary
biology
Charter journals and societies
• American Naturalist (ASN)• Evolution (SSE)• Journal of Evolutionary Biology (ESEB)• Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB)
• Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE)• Molecular Ecology• Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution• Systematic Biology (SSB)
SystemAdministration
Jon Auman
IT SupportJack D’Ardenne
AssistantDirector
Hilmar Lapp
Web & GuiXianhua Liu
Data Models,Middleware
Surya Dhullipalla
Data RepositoryRyan Scherle
UI/OntologyResearch
JAmes Balhoff
DB ResearchTBD
GMOD UserSupport
David Clements
AssociateDirector
Todd Vision
Duke staff UNC staff
Enabling UNC-based efforts
• Integrating taxonomic databases for 21st century paleontology Pat Gensel (UNC), co-organizer Sponsored by NSF and The Paleontological Society
• Toward an international exchange standard for biodiversity co-occurrence data Bob Peet (UNC) Sponsored by the SEEK program (Science Environment for Ecological Knowledge)
Education and Outreach Brian Wiegmann (NCSU)
• Promote education and research in evolutionary biology occurring here and elsewhere.
• Offer resources for scientists, educators, and the general public to disseminate knowledge improve science education promote the mission of NESCENT
Education and outreach audiences
•The scientific community•The education community (at all levels)
•Underrepresented Groups
NESCENT Education and Outreach Staff
• Kristen Jenkins - Program Manager
(AIBS/Duke)
• Jory Weintraub - Program Manager (NCSU)
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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.
EOG and the Scientific Community
• Journal Articles • Press releases• NESCent Newsletter
• NESCent Website
Communicating NESCent Science
EOG and the Scientific Community
• Effective Teaching series (ongoing)• Career development workshops (applying, interviewing for, negotiating faculty positions)
• Communicating science workshops (“Sharing Your Science with the Public”, mentoring)
• Teaching Opportunities
Postdoc Professional Development
Guest Lectures (Duke, UNC-CH, UNC-P, NCSSM, Norfolk State, UPR via videoconference
AMNH Online Evolution Course Individual consulting (teaching, writing, teaching statements)
EOG and the Education Community
• Improving Evolution Education at the Undergraduate Level
• National Association of Biology Teachers Evolution Symposium (NABT, Annual Meeting)
• Evolution in the News Podcast Project• Elementary Evolution Education Curriculum (J. Fail, Johnson C. Smith University)
EOG and the Education Community
• SELECTION Working Group (John Jungck)• Evolution Across the Curriculum Working Group
(Uno and Scotchmoor)• TREE Working Group (Sam Donovan)
Improving Evolution Education
at the Undergraduate Level
EOG and the Education Community
• Work w/AIBS to plan, organize, facilitate day-long symposium
• Dec. 1, 2007 Symposium“Evolution: Human Health and Populations”
• Develop, produce, distribute instructional CD-ROM on topic
• Videotape symposium for web broadcast• Evaluation
Natl. Assoc. Biol. Teachers: Evolution Symposium
EOG and the Education Community
• Expansion of the “Evolution in the News” program Working with Elsa Youngsteadt,
grad student at NCSU• NSF CCLI (Course Curriculum and
Laboratory Improvement) grant submitted
• Pilot study in J. Kingsolver’s Fall ’07 “Evolution and Life Class” at UNC Students will produce Evolution
in the News podcasts
Evolution in the News Podcast Project
EOG and Underrepresented Groups
• Working group: Evolution Education at Historically Minority Universities
• Evolution and Ecology at SACNAS, Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science
• Minority outreach database• Minority Student Scholarships to Attend the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution
EOG and Underrepresented Groups
• Organized, facilitated by EOG• Co-sponsored by AIBS, ESA, NCEAS, SSE• Panel discussion: “Exploring Careers in Evolution and Ecology”
• Field trip to Univ. of Kansas Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center
• Movie Night: Flock of Dodos (screening, followed by guided discussion)
• Mentoring and Graduate School Recruiting
Evolution and Ecology at SACNAS
Connections of EOG to Triangle/UNC
• ???
Summary
• NESCent’s activities bring international prominence to the Triangle.
• The Center greatly enriches the intellectual environment for local scientists.
• Triangle researchers are using the Center to advance their own research
• The center enlarges the outreach arm of each institution, particularly to under-represented groups.