Vanderbilt may nominate one candidate for the Simons Investigators in the Mathematical Modeling of Living Systems (MMLS) Award, which supports junior faculty for five years at $100,000 per year. An additional $10,000 per year will be provided to the investigator’s department. In addition, the institution will receive 20 percent per year in indirect costs on the investigator and departmental funds.
The MMLS award aims to support mathematical model-based approaches in life sciences and foster a scientific culture of theory-experiment collaboration similar to that prevailing in the physical sciences. A broad spectrum of research areas within the life sciences will be considered, ranging from cellular-level issues of organization, regulation, signaling and dynamics through morphogenesis to the properties of large organisms, as well as neuroscience and evolution. Preference will be given to areas in which modeling approaches are less established, and for that reason bioinformatics and genomics will fall outside the scope of the program. In all cases, preference will be given to work that relates closely to experiment, develops models that can explain data, suggests new classes of experiments and introduces important new concepts.
To be an investigator, the scientist must be engaged in research related to the program and have a primary appointment as a faculty member. At the time of appointment, the investigator should be within five years of the start of the first faculty position and typically hold an assistant professor or equivalent position.
Anyone interested in being considered as Vanderbilt’s nominee must submit the following (in PDF format) to LSO@vanderbilt.edu by Aug. 26, 2014, at 5 p.m.
- A brief (two-page maximum) research plan including a summary budget;
- A brief statement of support from a department chair/center director; and
- A brief CV or NIH biosketch.
Submissions should reference the program name in the subject line of the email.
Once received, all proposals will be forwarded to an internal review committee that will choose the final nominee. The chosen nominee will submit a full proposal to the foundation by the Oct. 28, 2014, deadline.
If you have any questions, please contact Vivian Carmichael, executive director of Foundation Relations, at (615) 875-4915.