Three UC Irvine researchers have been awarded Sloan Research Fellowships
this year: Natalia Komarova, assistant professor of mathematics with a
joint appointment in ecology and evolutionary biology, for mathematics;
Frances Chance, assistant professor of neurobiology and behavior, for
neuroscience; and Thorsten Ritz, assistant professor of physics and
astronomy, for molecular biology. All three researchers are associated
with UCI's Center for Complex Biological Systems, an interdisciplinary
center that focuses on the study of biological processes as whole
systems instead of isolated parts.
The fellowships are intended to enhance the careers of the very best
young faculty members in specified fields of science. Currently a total
of 116 fellowships are awarded annually in seven fields: chemistry,
computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science,
economics, mathematics, neuroscience, and physics.
Natalia Komarova's research interests are at the interface between the
mathematical and life sciences. She works on a variety of topics,
including the modeling of cancer progression, the evolutionary theory of
language, mathematical learning theory, and biophysics. She tries to
formulate the most fascinating questions of natural sciences in the
language of mathematics, and use the mathematical tools available to her
to solve them.
Frances Chance combines two techniques in her research, recording from
individual neurons in brain slices and theoretical studies of neural
networks, to understand how the brain processes information. Currently
her research focuses on how neural networks regulate their sensitivity
to sensory stimuli, effectively turning up and down the "volume control"
of individual neurons. Results from her research could help explain
behavioral phenomena such as attention and our ability to process
information in a wide range of environments.
Thorsten Ritz uses theory and computations to study how the structures
of biological molecules relate to their function. He collaborates
closely with experimentalists to understand the magnetic sensory system
that allows animals like migratory birds to find north. A second field
of interest is to understand how photosynthetic organisms capture light
and use its energy with high efficiency.
Useful Websites:
http://www.sloan.org/programs/fellowshiplist.shtml
http://math.uci.edu/~komarova/