Penn State and U.S. National Science Foundation representatives cut a ribbon celebrating the official launch of the U.S. National Science Foundation National Synthesis Center for Emergence in the Molecular and Cellular Sciences (NCEMS) with the Penn State Nittany Lion mascot. The NCEMS launch took place on Monday, Nov. 18, and provided information about open calls for working groups, fellowships and internships, as well as a growth trajectory over the next five years. Credit: Keith Hickey/Huck Institutes.
NCEMS celebrates official launch, growth trajectory
Posted on December 3, 2024Editor’s Note: A version of this story was originally published on Penn State News.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) National Synthesis Center for Emergence in the Molecular and Cellular Sciences (NCEMS) recently celebrated their official launch with a ribbon cutting and ceremony at the Verne M. Willaman Gateway to the Life Sciences bridge in the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State University Park.
The ceremony brought together Penn State faculty and students, as well as representatives from NSF to learn more about NCEMS’ mission and vision for growth over the next five years, as well as current open calls for working groups, fellowships and summer programs.
“NCEMS is bringing a powerhouse of computational and data sciences, particularly at the molecular and cellular level,” said Andrew Read, senior vice president for research, in his remarks at the NCEMS launch event. “We are looking forward to the success of NCEMS and believe there are significant opportunities for driving formative discoveries in this space.”
The center aims to enable research that uses existing, publicly available data to gain new insights about how complex biological systems, such as cells, emerge from simpler molecules. The center will create a community of scientists to support research using these datasets to answer fundamental scientific questions.
“We at NCEMS have the opportunity to take a step back and to take a look at and integrate under-utilized, publicly available data in novel ways,” said Ed O’Brien, NCEMS director, professor of chemistry in the Eberly College of Science and Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) co-hire. “NCEMS will work to lower barriers in community-scale research by bringing scientists together to create a community to drive discovery of emergent properties. We are on a growth trajectory that will include more open calls for scientists, postdocs and undergraduates to carry out research on these datasets, as well as to train the next generation in data science and team science.”
NCEMS will initially support six working groups, the applications for which have a submission deadline of Jan. 15. These working groups will tackle scientific research questions with comprehensive support from the center’s staff scientists and staff scientist assistants, access to cyberinfrastructure from the University of Arizona’s CyVerse, assistance with publication costs, a travel budget for in-person meetings and personnel exchanges, and cross-disciplinary trainings in open and team science. The working groups and staff scientists will also have support from the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) and the Huck Institutes.
The summer internship program will offer undergraduate students the opportunity to work on a project in a professional research setting, serving as a pathway to graduate education, according to NCEMS. The submission deadline is Feb. 10.
NCEMS will also offer three-year fellowships to postdocs that will build the fellows’ skills by providing opportunities for professional development, research excellence and resources, as well as community engagement. The submission deadline is March 9.
The ribbon cutting ceremony marked the physical dedication of the center, which was first announced in April.
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