{"response":{"award":[{"abstractText":"This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2020, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the Fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. This research investigates the ecology and evolution of the Hymenoptera, the order of insects containing species such as ants, bees, wasps, and sawflies. The work contributes to our scientific understanding of how genetics, epigenetics, behavior, and ecology are related over developmental and ecological time scales, in the context of a well-studied and biodiverse clade of insects. This project addresses fundamental questions in biology including: How did colony living (eusociality) arise in ants and bees from their solitary ancestors? How do colony traits originate and become elaborate? How are the hormonal and neurobiological underpinnings of colony traits linked to genetic and ecological variation among species? How might these insights from eusocial colony evolution help humans design resilient distributed systems, for example to respond to disasters, manage socially-spread pathogens, and improve the security of cyberphysical systems? The Fellow will also actively engage in science communication, mentoring, and outreach programs, with a special emphasis on local underserved communities, team-based remote education, and transdisciplinary approaches such as Complexity Science.\r\n\r\nEusocial (colony-living) insect species display variation within populations and among species in ecologically-important colony traits such as behavior (e.g. collective foraging, search, offense/defense) and reproductive strategies. Tissue-specific gene expression patterns can influence colony traits such as collective behavior in a non-linear fashion through altering colony-level physiological processes. Previous approaches to studying the evolution of eusocial insect colony traits have been of limited phylogenetic scope, have not considered the role of tissue-specific gene expression in colony-level physiological processes, or only considered genes with single-copy orthologs present in all species considered. This project will integrate multiple biological techniques (phylogenomics, transcriptomics, chemical profiling, ecological niche modeling) to investigate the evolutionary and functional roles of lineage-specific genes, complex gene families, and tissue-specific expression patterns in Hymenoptera. More broadly, the theoretical models and bioinformatic pipelines developed in this research will generalize far beyond the Hymenoptera, and provide avenues for integrative synthesis across taxa. The Fellow will be co-trained by Prof. Brian Johnson (University of California, Davis) and Prof. Tim Linksvayer (University of Pennsylvania), and will work to increase participation, inclusion, reproducibility, and transparency in science.\r\n\r\nThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.","activeAwd":"false","agency":"NSF","awardAgencyCode":"4900","awardee":"","awardeeAddress":"","awardeeCity":"Davis","awardeeCountryCode":"US","awardeeDistrict":"04","awardeeDistrictCode":"CA04","awardeeName":"Friedman, Daniel A","awardeePhone":"","awardeeStateCode":"CA","awardeeZipCode":"95616","cfdaNumber":"47.074","date":"06/26/2020","dirAbbr":"BIO","divAbbr":"DBI","estimatedTotalAmt":"138000","expDate":"09/30/2023","fundAgencyCode":"4900","fundProgramName":"Cross-BIO Activities, Biology Postdoctoral Research","fundsObligated":["FY 2020 = $138,000.00","FY 2021 = $69,000.00"],"fundsObligatedAmt":"207000","histAwd":"false","id":"2010290","initAmendmentDate":"06/26/2020","latestAmendmentDate":"08/30/2021","managingPec":"804900","orgCodeDir":"08000000","orgCodeDiv":"08080000","orgLongName":"Directorate for Biological Sciences","orgLongName2":"Division of Biological Infrastructure","orgUrl":"http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=DBI","parentUeiNumber":"","pdPIName":"Daniel A Friedman","perfAddress":"","perfCity":"Davis","perfCountryCode":"US","perfDistrict":"04","perfDistrictCode":"CA04","perfLocation":"University of California, Davis","perfStateCode":"CA","perfZipCode":"956165271","pi":["Daniel A Friedman"],"piFirstName":"Daniel","piId":"270034619","piLastName":"Friedman","piMiddeInitial":"A","poEmail":"","poName":"Joel","poPhone":"","primaryProgram":["01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT","010V2122DB R&RA ARP Act DEFC V"],"progEleCode":"727500, 804900","program":"URoL-Understanding Rules of Life, COVID-19 Impacts on Existing Activities, COVID-Disproportionate Impcts Inst-Indiv","progRefCode":"068Z, 097Z, 102Z","projectOutComesReport":"
\n
NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology Award #2010290: Project Outcomes Report
\n

\n
Fellowship Overview:
\n

\n
The NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology, awarded to Daniel Ari Friedman (Award #2010290), spanned from October 2020 to October 2023. Under the co-advising of Prof. Brian Johnson (University of California, Davis) and Prof. Tim Linksvayer (Arizona State University), this fellowship focused on theoretical and applied work in multi-scale, multi-agent ecosystems. Special emphasis was placed on ant colonies, human organizations, generic models of synthetic intelligence ecosystems, and broader participation in science.
\n
Research Achievements:
\n
The fellowship facilitated extensive collaborative research, yielding approximately 25 published articles and 3 books. The research undertakings can be categorized into four primary streams:
\n
    \n
  1. Bioinformatics in Insect Research: Utilization of advanced bioinformatics tools for comprehensive analyses in insects, including a notable meta-analysis of tissue-specific gene expression in honey bees.
    2. \n
  2. Cognitive Modeling in Insects: Implementation of cognitive modeling and behavioral simulations to deepen understanding of insect behavior.
    3. \n
  3. Active Inference and Free Energy Principle: Investigation ranged from groundbreaking analytical models of evolution, to extensive literature reviews and philosophical analyses.
    4. \n
  4. Cognitive Security: In collaboration with RJ Cordes of COGSEC, this stream explored cognitive security, knowledge management, and the dynamics of the modern information environment.
    5. \n
\n
Education and Service Contributions:
\n
Significant contributions were made in educational and service domains:
\n\n
Access to Comprehensive Information:
\n
For a fuller account of the project outcomes, please visit the fellow's personal site https://cognitivesecurity.us/ , which provides extensive information and resources related to the fellowship's research and educational achievements.
\n\n
\n

\n Last Modified: 12/18/2023
\nModified by: Daniel A Friedman

\n
\n
\n","publicAccessMandate":"1","startDate":"10/01/2020","title":"NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020","transType":"Fellowship Award","ueiNumber":""}],"metadata":{"offset":0,"rpp":25,"totalCount":1}}}