Physics of Life (2022) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 266-275
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From page 266... ...
Conclusion: Equality of opportunity for students to engage with physics, including biological physics, depends on high-quality introductory courses, emphasizing the interconnectedness of education and research. Finding: Current models for support of undergraduate research perpetuate a sharp distinction between the core curriculum (education)
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From page 267... ...
Because biology is a much larger enterprise than physics, many new PhDs in biological physics will move to postdoctoral positions in biology departments or to basic science departments at medical schools. On the one hand, this is a sign 5 P
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From page 268... ...
To maintain coherence as postdoctoral fellows move to a wide variety of research environments requires support for their attendance at events that bring them into contact with the broad biological physics community. In this respect, an important role is played by institutions such as the Aspen Center for Physics and the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, which have hosted many programs on topics in biological physics alongside those in better established subfields of physics.
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From page 269... ...
are more and more deeply connected to problems in the life sciences, in ways that often resonate with the biological physics community. Finally, there are opportunities in the many different kinds of biology departments that one finds at universities, and in the even wider range of departments and research centers found at medical schools.
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From page 270... ...
These are symptoms of the large gap that has developed between the practice of science and the education of undergraduates. This chapter has examined these issues, leading to a series of interlocking findings, conclusions, and recommendations about: • the integration of biological physics into the core physics curriculum; • the need for modernization of the physics curriculum; • courses on biological physics for advanced physics students; • the special role of biological physics in building a more quantitative biology; and • integration of education and research, and support for this integration.
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From page 271... ...
Government agencies seeking to advance fundamental understanding of our world turn to biological physics for insights into the physical underpinnings of life. Others look to biological physics to elucidate processes that could form the basis for exciting new applications in medicine, energy, engineering, and more.
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From page 272... ...
The diversity of funding sources creates challenges in assembling a global view of support for the field, and it seems prudent to begin by enumerating some of the resulting caveats. First, there can be a challenge even in finding biological physics projects in an agency's categorization of its own funding programs, and the committee adopted different approaches with different agencies, as described in detail below.
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From page 273... ...
Agency by Agency Analysis In fiscal year 2020, federal research and development funding in the United States reached an estimated $164 billion.1 Congress appropriates this funding through 12 annual appropriations bills, supporting science and engineering re Total Reported Funding over the Decade, By Agency (2010–2019) FIGURE 9.1 Aggregate spending on programs that include biological physics, across funding agen cies, over the decade 2010–2019.
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From page 274... ...
In Figure 9.1, what is counted as total NSF funding for biological physics combines the PoLS program, the PFCs with a clear focus on the field, and MCB awards identified as "molecular biophysics." This total for the decade is broken out year by year in Figure 9.2, and further divided into the regular awards from PoLS
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From page 275... ...
As with the caveats to Figure 9.1, these budgets considerably exceed actual spending on biological physics. in particular, for the Physics Frontier Centers, 2012 includes $28 million to the Kavli Institute for Theoreti cal Physics; only ∼30 percent of Kavli Institute programs are in biological physics, and some of these are supported by funds outside the main NSF Physics Frontier Centers award.
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