INBRE Seminar Series
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Dr. D. Eric SmithThe Emergence of Life: |
The Directorate for Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF) has funded the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) - along with collaborating institutions George Mason University, University of Colorado, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Arizona State, and Carnegie Institution of Washington - a five-year Frontiers in Integrative Biological Research (FIBR) grant for the project, "The Emergence of Life: from Geochemistry to the Genetic Code." This FIBR project will inject a broad array of novel theory and experimental data into the debate on the origin of life, involving an integrated approach that brings together microbiology, geochemistry, physics, biochemistry, computer simulation and a modern understanding of complex dynamical systems. The goal is to provide, for the first time, a coherent account of the evolution of metabolism and the development of the modern genetic code. As part of this project SFI looks forward to forming a student cohort drawn from within New Mexico. |
| Dr. D. Eric Smith will introduce students and faculty to this multidisciplinary project. As a research scientist at SFI, his interests include physical and chemical self-organization, origin of life, money, markets, and institutions, biomolecular information and evolvability. |