Rowland Junior Fellows Program

The Rowland Junior Fellows are selected to perform independent experimental research for five years, with full institutional support and access to the Institute's outstanding technical and scientific resources. The number of Rowland Junior Fellows will equal about ten over five years, with the first nine already appointed. Candidates in all the natural sciences (physics, chemistry, biology,...) as well as in engineering will be considered, with special attention given to interdisciplinary work and to the development of new experimental methods.

• Visual Neuroscience - David Cox - (neuroscience)
  We recognize visual objects with such ease that it is easy to overlook what an impressive computational feat this represents. Any given object in the world can cast an effectively infinite number of different images onto the retina, depending on its position relative to the viewer, the configuration of light sources, and the presence of other objects in the visual field. In spite of this extreme variation, biological visual systems are able to effortlessly recognize at least hundreds of thousands of distinct object classes—a feat that no current artificial system can come close to achieving. Our laboratory seeks to understand the neuronal mechanisms that enable this ability by reverse engineering simple biological visual systems. It is our hope that this work leads to a greater understanding of how our own brain works and to the construction of improved artificial visual systems.



• The Evolution of Behavior Group - Ben de Bivort - (neurobiology)
  The animal kingdom has immense morphological diversity, but even greater behavioral diversity. We study how evolution generates behavioral diversity, particularly how natural genetic variation modifies neural circuits and circuit properties in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and related species. We are also studying how fungal insect parasites target healthy neural circuits to modify walking behavior in living hosts. These questions are addressed using versatile Drosophila genetic tools, high resolution single animal behavioral assays, and fluorescent genetically-encoded indicators of neural circuit activity.



• Propulsion Physiology - Chris Richards - (biomechanics)
  My lab explores how muscles move limbs to power swimming. Muscle is a spectacularly efficient and powerful motor which drives behaviors that impress biologists and engineers alike. How do aquatic animals accelerate rapidly or maneuver precisely at high swimming speeds? Intuition tells us that high performance swimming, such as prey capture or escaping, demands high muscle power. However, we cannot often predict the muscle power required for a given swimming task. Moreover, we do not fully understand how nerves communicate with muscles to achieve the exquisite control of swimming performance seen in nature. My lab seeks to understand the physiological basis for how nature's swimming machines (e.g. frogs, fish, aquatic insects) solve the difficult engineering problem of moving rapidly through water.



• Nanomechanical Sensing - Ozgur Sahin - (applied physics)
  At the molecular level, physical and chemical properties of materials are tightly coupled to the mechanical properties. The potential of mechanics for interacting with matter at the nanoscale has been largely unexplored due to lack of instruments capable of performing mechanical measurements at nanometer length scales. Our research focuses on developing tools and techniques to perform nanomechanical measurements and applying them to problems in materials science, cell biology, and molecular biology.



• Applied Superfluidity - Yuki Sato - (physics)
  In Bose-Einstein condensates, ~10²³ atoms can occupy the same quantum ground state and behave in many ways as a single entity. We are interested in not only studying fascinating properties of such state of matter but also applying them as a set of tools to elucidate the subtleties of the quantum world. One of our current focuses is the development and applications of unique matter wave quantum interference devices that are built on the superfluid ⁴He Josephson phenomena.



• Ultracold Rydberg Atoms and Terahertz Spectroscopy - Andrew Speck - (atomic physics)
  The objective of our research is to study the interaction of highly excited, or Rydberg atoms, with unipolar terahertz electromagnetic pulses (half cycle pulses). These systems provide a fascinating regime in which to explore atomic states which exhibit both classical and quantum properties. The first series of experiments in my group will explore the interaction of a train of these pulses with Rydberg atoms. Further research will include the study of the magnetic properties of the half cycle pulse and their effect on atomic systems.



• Plant Patterning Via Active and Latent Stem Cells - Rachel Spicer - (biology)
  Plants are able to regenerate whole body parts like roots and shoots with relative ease because they demonstrate amazing cellular plasticity. Masters of dedifferentiation, plants not only retain pools of stem cells throughout their lives, but also create new stem cells in response to developmental and environmental cues. My primary interest is in the role of parenchyma cells in shaping large woody plants - namely, through their ability to dedifferentiate and generate new meristems in response to wounding, and during the transition to secondary growth. I'm interested in developing molecular and microscopy techniques to study secondary growth, including methods to image live cells in woody tissue.



• Single-molecule Force Studies - Wesley Wong - (biophysics)
  We are interested in how biological systems work at the nanoscale, and the physical laws that govern their behavior. Our focus is on weak, thermally mediated interactions between and within biological molecules (e.g. base-pairing in nucleic acids, receptor-ligand bonding, protein folding, etc.), and the coupling of these interactions to mechanical force. We are currently developing and applying new techniques, based on optical tweezers and high-resolution optical detection, to study the mechanics and force-driven kinetics of single-molecules.