Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2005

This action funds an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2005. The goal of the fellowship is to increase the participation of minority scientists at the postdoctoral level and to prepare them for positions of scientific leadership in US science. To attain this goal, the fellowship provides opportunities for postdoctoral training and research of the highest quality to recent doctoral recipients. It is expected that Fellows supported through these fellowships will play important roles in training of the future workforce.

The research and training plan is entitled 'Wild chilies and their nurse plants: a study of the ecological consequences of plant species associations and the mechanisms that promote them.' Research in Bolivian and Arizonan deserts is examining how nurse-tree associations mediate seed-dispersal, herbivory, and seed-predation of wild chilies where some of their nurse-trees share frugivorous birds with chilies and some do not. The training plan is to learn and apply molecular techniques to ecological problems and help advance understanding of how ecological interactions shape plant communities. The Fellow is collaborating with U.S. and international scientists and obtaining additional research experience to strengthen a career in science and academia.