2020 Scialogs aim to accelerate scientific breakthroughs
(Note: Signatures of Life in the Universe and Microbiome, Neurobiology and Disease have been postponed and will begin in 2021.)
Up-and-coming scientists from a variety of disciplines will collaborate on timely and important global issues as Research Corporation for Science Advancement launches three new, multi-year Scialog initiatives in 2020. Topics are: Signatures of Life in the Universe, co-sponsored by the Heising-Simons Foundation; Microbiome, Neurobiology and Disease, co-sponsored by the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group and the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation; and Negative Emissions Science, co-sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Scialog is short for “science + dialog.” Created in 2010 by RCSA, the Scialog program brings together promising early-career scientists from disciplines that otherwise might not interact. Within each multi-year initiative, Scialog Fellows meet in annual conferences to design cutting-edge research based on innovative ideas and to communicate their progress. Participation is by invitation.
“One of the best ways to accelerate discovery is by engaging diverse cohorts of early-career scholars from multiple disciplines and multiple institutions to address these complex questions,” said Evan Michelson, program director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Each Scialog theme is developed in consultation with senior research scientists from across the country. At each three-day Scialog, held in Tucson, Arizona, approximately 50 early-career Fellows are guided by 10 senior scientists recognized as world-leading researchers in the area of focus.
Scialog Fellows form interdisciplinary teams around ideas for research projects generated by their discussions. They pitch their ideas to a committee of senior researchers who then recommend funding based primarily on the potential for high-impact results.
The process empowers a national community of scientists who have many promising years of research ahead of them to tackle challenging problems of high importance.
The first Scialog of 2020 will be Signatures of Life in the Universe in March. It will bring together scientists from earth and planetary science, chemistry and physics, astronomy and astrobiology, microbiology and biochemistry, and computer and data science, to generate projects to gain fundamental understanding of habitability of planets, detection of life beyond Earth, and life in extreme environments on Earth or in Earth’s distant past.
“The search for life outside of our planet and solar system has potentially entered a time of exponential growth,” said Cyndi Atherton, Science Program Director at the Heising-Simons Foundation. “From the realization of the first exoplanet to the thousands we’ve classified today, the implications for startling and truly novel discoveries has never been higher.”
She said the “truly frank and forward-thinking discussions” that happen at Scialogs can catalyze and augment strides being made in the search for life beyond Earth.
“To partner with scientists on this path of discovery is every philanthropist’s dream,” she continued. “Whether that life is carbon-based or otherwise and consists of single cells or larger organisms and life forms, there is a vast body of knowledge yet to be learned and understood.”
The second Scialog, Microbiome, Neurobiology and Disease in April, will convene chemists, physicists, biologists and neuroscientists to consider our understanding of the gut microbiome and its relationship to the brain in both normal and disease states.
“During the last few years, it has become clear that the gut-brain axis is an area of bioscience that deserves a lot more attention,” said Kathy Richmond, Director of The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group.
“With a growing body of evidence that our microbiome plays a role in brain health and disease, now is the time to bring together scientists from many disciplines to do the research that will lay the foundation for new discoveries,” she said. “This is part of the Frontiers Group’s mission and why we’re proud to support this Scialog.”
The third Scialog of 2020, Scialog: Negative Emissions Science in November, is a response to the pressing challenge of greenhouse gases accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. This event will challenge a multidisciplinary group of scientists from chemistry, physics, materials science, biology, engineering and geophysics to explore together how to advance fundamental science in the design of novel approaches for rapidly removing and utilizing or sequestering greenhouse gases.
“Making progress on negative emissions research will be critical to realizing a low-carbon future,” said Michelson. “Scientific breakthroughs are needed to create next-generation solutions, from new materials for direct air capture to better techniques for carbon mineralization to strategies for enhancing nature-based interventions.”
Other Scialogs: The Scialog series Chemical Machinery of the Cell, which began in 2018 and is co-sponsored by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, will conclude in October 2020 with its third conference. Completed Scialog series include Advanced Energy Storage, Molecules Come to Life, Solar Energy Conversion, and Time Domain Astrophysics.
