PRELIMINARY ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS
The University of Pennsylvania Conference on Computational Biology
to honor the 50th anniversary of the ENIAC,
sponsored by:
The University of Pennsylvania Training Program in Computational Biology,
DIMACS - The NSF Center for Discrete Mathematics and Computer Science,
and the National Science Foundation.
The conference will be held at DIMACS and Princeton University, May 17-19,
1996. (The timing of the conference enables attendees to attend this
and the FCRC, which will take place in Philadelphia, one hour away,
the following week.)
Historical Note:
The University of Pennsylvania Training Program in Computational
Biology and DIMACS are pleased to jointly host this conference on
computational biology as part of the ENIAC Symposium. This conference
will be one of the activities in the Commemorative, Technical and
Historical Symposium on the occasion of 50th anniversary of the Moore
School Lectures. These Lectures were held during the summer of 1946
to bring together the leading specialists in high-speed digital
computation in order to lay the foundations of the yet-to-be-defined
fields of computer engineering and computer science. With this
symposium, we again hope to assemble researchers in current computer
science disciplines to advance the state of the field. On this
occasion we also invite historians of technology and computing, in
order to understand the past so that we may proceed more knowingly
into the future.
About the Conference:
The conference will have invited and contributed talks, and will be
based around sessions focusing on important research areas within
the field. There will be ample time allocated for discussions
and interactions among biologists, computer scientists and mathematicians.
This year's special research topics will include: Structure Prediction,
Tandem Repeats, Databases, Sequencing and Mapping, and Genome
Rearrangements. There also will be a special session on
interdisciplinary education in computational biology, in which directors
and students in various training programs throughout the country will
participate.
Invited speakers include:
Craig Benham (Biomathematics, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine),
Gary Benson (Biomathematics, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine),
Bonnie Berger (Math, MIT),
Susan Davidson (CIS, Penn),
Sampath Kannan (CIS, Penn),
Rob Lipschutz (Affymetrix),
Joshua Lederberg (Rockefeller),
Pavel Pevzner (Math, USC), and
Jeanette Schmidt (Brooklyn Polytechnic)
Peter Shor (AT&T)
Michael Waterman (Math and Molecular Biology, USC).
REGISTRATION: A registration form is appended at the end of this
announcement. Participants should submit their registration applications
by e-mail, using this form, to Sandy Barbu at barbu at cs.princeton.edu.
There is no charge for registering, but registration will be limited to
150 applicants.
GRADUATE STUDENTS AND POSTDOCS: Funds are available to partly defray
the costs of attending this conference for graduate students and
postdocs. Please arrange for a letter of recommendation to be sent
by your advisor or other appropriate senior scientist. Students and
postdocs will also be expected to participate either by giving a
contributed talk or presenting a poster.
DISCUSSANT AWARDS: Awards to help cover travel to the conference are
available, primarily for biologists. All recipients of these awards
are expected to participate either through a poster or through a
contributed talk. To apply for a discussant award, please send a
CV and a letter describing your intended contribution to the
Conference Organizer. (See information below.) Awards will be
announced by mid-April.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE: To apply for a discussant or travel award,
please send a vita, a one page abstract of a poster of contributed
talk, and a letter of recommendation to the Conference Organizer
(see below).
BANQUET: A banquet will be held Firday evening at the University of
Pennsylvania as part of the ENIAC celebration. This will include a
distinguished lecture on the History of Science. There will be a moderate
charge for the banquet, reduced for students. Transportation to Penn and
back will be provided.
PROCEEDINGS: A proceedings will be published.
SUBMISSIONS: We are limiting the contributed talks so as to leave
sufficient time for general and technical discussion. However, we
will have a poster session as part of the wine and cheese reception
Saturday evening. If you are interested in contributing either a
short talk or a poster, please send a short abstract by April 1, 1996
to Tandy Warnow (address below). Selection of posters and contributed
talks will be made and announced by April 20, 1996. Simultaneous
submission to conferences or journals is acceptable.
CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS: Craig Benham and Tandy Warnow
send correspondence to:
Tandy Warnow
Department of Computer and Information Science
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19105-6389
tandy at central.cis.upenn.edu
PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Craig Benham (Mount Sinai)
Martin Farach (Rutgers)
Sampath Kannan (Penn)
Tandy Warnow (Penn)
LOCATION: Nassau Inn, Princeton NJ, and the Computer Science Building of
Princeton University, located at 35 Olden Street.
LODGING: A block of 50 rooms has been set aside for conference
participants at the Nassau Inn, and another 25 rooms have been
set aside at the Palmer Inn. These rooms are available at reduced
rates for participants registering before April 14th. Be sure to
inform the registration desk that you are registering for the
Penn/DIMACS Computational Biology Conference in order to receive
the reduced rate.
Nassau Inn Dbl/Single $105
1 Palmer Square
Princeton, NJ
Phone: (609) 921-7500
FAX: (608) 921-6530
(800) 243-1166
The Nassau Inn is located in the center of downtown Princeton within walking
distance of the Computer Science Building.
Palmer Inn Single $ 64
3499 Rt. 1 South Double $ 66
Princeton, NJ
Phone: (609) 452-2500
FAX: (609) 452-1371
(800) 688-0500
The Palmer Inn is not within walking distance, but they do provide van
service. The above rate includes a continental breakfast.
Bed and Breadfast of Princeton
P. O. Box 571
Princeton, NJ 08542
Phone: (609) 924-3189 FAX: (609) 921-6271
Email: CompuServe 71035.757 at compuserve.com (John Hurley)
Single:$40-$50, Dbl. $50-$60
Please make reservations directly with hotels or bed & breakfast. When making
reservations at either hotel, specify it is a DIMACS reservation. (This isn't
necessary at the B & B.)
___________________________________________________________________
*Watch the DIMACS WWW page for updates in the schedule
Tentative Schedule:
Friday, 5/17
9-10 Introductory talk
10-12:30 Session on Molecular Structure Prediction
Invited talks:
Craig Benham (DNA structure)
Bonnie Berger (protein structure)
Discussion and short talks by participants
12:30-2 lunch break
2-4:30 Session on Tandem Repeats
Invited talks:
Jeanette Schmidt and
Gary Benson (algorithms)
Discussion and short talks by participants
5:00 Bus to Penn
6:00 - 7:00 Cocktail Reception
7:00 - 9:00 Banquet
9:00 Bus back to Princeton
Saturday 5/18
9-11:30 Session on Sequencing and Mapping
Invited talks:
Rob Lipschutz
Mike Waterman
Discussion and short talks by participants
11:30-1 lunch
1-3 Session on Databases
Invited talk:
Susan Davidson
Discussion and short talks by participants
3-3:30 tea break
3:30-5 Discussion Session on Education in Computational Biology
Representatives of currently existing training programs will
discuss their approaches and experiences. These will include
DIMACS, Penn, Mount Sinai and Washington.
4:30-6 Poster Session and Reception (champagne, wine, cheese)
Sunday 5/19
9-9:45 Sampath Kannan (Trees)
9:45-10:30 Peter Short (Viral Shell Assembly)
10:30-11 Coffee Break
11-12 Computational Neurobiology
12-1:00 lunch
1:00-3:00 Session on Genome Rearrangements
Invited talk:
Pavel Pevzner
Discussion and short talks by participants
3-5 Past and Future of the field
Invited talks:
Joshua Lederberg
Craig Benham
5 Conclusion of the Conference
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Send registrations to barbu at cs.princeton.edu and include the following
information:
Subject: Computational Biology Workshop registration
lastname:
firstname:
email address:
affiliation:
address:
city:
state:
zip:
phone:
fax:
talk topic:
software demo: (yes or no)
special needs:
your position: (student, faculty, researcher)
home institution: university, corporate lab, or Government lab
(if other, describe)
how did you hear about this workshop:
WWW:http://dimacs.rutgers.edu