News

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the CompGen initiative are sponsoring two Spring 2015 fellowships for graduate students working in biology, bioinformatics, computational biology, or biologically relevant computational science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The graduate fellows will contribute to the development of NCSA’s Bioinformatics and Health Sciences research theme, led by Victor Jongeneel. Preference will be given to projects that involve innovative use of cyberinfrastructure—computer and supercomputer hardware, software, data storage, network bandwidth, visualization, etc.—such as supercomputer applications for bioinformatics or using high-performance computing or visualization to improve analysis of biological problems. In addition to research assistantships, the graduate fellows will have access to NCSA resources and will be provided with space in the NCSA Building.

Interested students should submit an application (PDF preferred or Word) by email to mhudson@illinois.edu by Dec. 1, 2014. Applications must include:

• Applicant’s name, department, and campus address
• Description of proposed project (no more than 500 words)
• One-page resume, including GPA, major, degree status (e.g., Ph.D. candidate, M.S. student), advisor(s), and any publications or awards.
• The names of two advisors—one computational, one genomic biology (one should be your major advisor, the other a collaborator or co-advisor). The collaborating advisor does not need to be a current committee member or co-advisor of your thesis. The advisors do not need to be NCSA or CompGen affiliates, although advisors of successful students will be encouraged to seek an affiliation. NOTE: Supporting letters are required from both advisors, to be emailed separately to mhudson@illinois.edu by Dec 1, 2014.

Applicants will be evaluated on their resume and academic strength, letters of recommendation and suitability of advisors, and the quality of their project proposal and its relevance to the NCSA-CompGen collaboration.

For more information about the fellowships, contact Matt Hudson (mhudson@illinois.edu); for questions about the role of NCSA, including space, facilities, etc., contact Victor Jongeneel (vjongene@illinois.edu).