The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis
(NIMBioS) is now accepting applications for its Investigative Workshop,
"Morphological Plant Models," to be held September 2-4, 2015, at NIMBioS.
*Objectives: *An increasing population faces the growing demand for
agricultural products. Accurate global climate models that account for
individual plant morphologies are needed to predict favorable human
habitat. At the heart of addressing the problems of climate change and
food security is the challenge of modeling plant morphology under field
conditions, which requires the integration of plant biology and
mathematics. An improved understanding of the mechanistic origins of
plant development requires geometric and topological descriptors to
characterize the phenotype of plants and its link to genotypes. However,
the current plant phenotyping framework relies on simple length and
diameter measurements, which fail to capture the exquisite architecture
of plants.This workshop aims to set new frontiers in combining plant
phenotyping with recent results from shape theory at the interface of
geometry and topology. We will explore the potential of new mathematical
concepts to analyze and quantify the relationship between morphological
plant features. Plant biologists and theorists will participate in
presentations and group discussions focused on developing plant science
questions that can be answered innovatively. We will explore novel
techniques, including persistent homology, graph-theory, and shape
statistics to tackle questions in crop breeding, developmental biology,
and vegetation modeling. The limitations of technological systems to
capture plant morphology above and below ground will be discussed in
order to focus on the application of existing concepts and the need to
identify new mathematical directions.
The mathematical/computational focus will be to identify current cutting
edge techniques to analyze, model, and describe plants from the cell to
the organ level and identify mathematical challenges in plant science
applications. The biological focus will be on how biologists can develop
datasets and provide perspectives to establish simple model systems that
employ favorable mathematical and technological constraints to discover
special cases for later generalization. The scientific goal is to
develop a suite of biological questions that allow participants to
jointly pioneer the use and development of geometric and topological
methods within the plant sciences. The synergy provided from uniting
these disparate disciplines will potentially fuel future collaborations
and hasten new studies and perspectives in plant phenotyping.
*Location: *NIMBioS at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
*Co-Organizers: *Alexander Bucksch, <http://www.bucksch.nl/>Schools of
Interactive Computing and Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology,
Atlanta and Dan Chitwood <http://www.chitwoodlab.org/>, Donald Danforth
Plant Science Center, St. Louis
For more information about the workshop and a link to the online
application form, go to http://www.nimbios.org/workshops/WS_plantmorph
Participation in the workshop is by application only. Individuals with a
strong interest in the topic are encouraged to apply, and successful
applicants will be notified within two weeks of the application
deadline. If needed, financial support for travel, meals, and lodging is
available for workshop attendees.
*Application deadline:* June 29, 2015
The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis
(NIMBioS) (http://www.nimbios.org) brings together researchers from
around the world to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries to
investigate solutions to basic and applied problems in the life
sciences. NIMBioS is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, with
additional support from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
*****************************
Catherine Crawley, Ph.D.
Communications Manager
National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS)
University of Tennessee
1122 Volunteer Blvd, Ste. 106
Knoxville, TN 37996
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