NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Assessing the effects of complex developmental environments on fitness across lifespans

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, 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 fellowship will support work in integrative organismal biology as well as discipline-based education research in undergraduate courses.

The biological research conducted through this fellowship will examine the role of the environment in shaping the development of organisms. By examining the nurture half of nature versus nurture, this research will illuminate how complex, ever-changing aspects of the environment shape an organism’s evolutionary fitness. The educational aspect of this research will be directed at improving equity and efficacy in undergraduate STEM courses at University of Colorado Boulder.

Both of these research aims will produce scholarly works that will represent novel contributions to the respective fields.

The two overarching goals of the organismal biology research are: (1) to assess the long-term effects of moisture and temperature individually on fitness using a modeling approach to analyze existing empirical data and (2) conduct further empirical studies on the interactive effects of moisture and temperature on phenotypes, behaviors, and fitness. The brown anole lizard (Anolis sagrei) will serve as an excellent system for this research, and this work will fill a significant gap in the understanding of this important model organism.

Additionally, this fellowship will allow the fellow to build on their existing skill set as a field ecologist by incorporating new techniques that will make the research truly integrative in nature. The fellow will also improve their skills as an educator by examining teaching practices in higher education. This research will provide data that can shape future instructional techniques that will close performance gaps for marginalized student groups.

This 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.