The University has been invited to submit up to two nominations for the Simons Investigators in the Mathematical Modeling of Living Systems (MMLS), a joint program of the Mathematics and Physical Sciences and Life Sciences divisions of the Simons Foundation.

The Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) is overseeing the application review and selection process. 

Program Overview:

The Simons Foundation invites nominations for Simons Investigators in the Mathematical Modeling of Living Systems (MMLS), a joint program of the Mathematics and Physical Sciences and Life Sciences divisions of the Simons Foundation. Investigators in MMLS are outstanding scientists, often with mathematics or theoretical physics backgrounds, now engaged in research based on mathematical modeling in the life sciences.

New approaches in mathematically based modeling are making increasingly important contributions to the life sciences. The MMLS program aims to support such approaches and foster a scientific culture of theory-experiment collaborations similar to that prevailing in the physical sciences. To encourage young researchers to pursue this endeavor, the MMLS program will provide a long-term, stable base of support, enabling a focus on model-based approaches to important issues in the life sciences.

A broad spectrum of research areas within the life sciences will be considered, ranging from cellular-level issues of organization, regulation, signaling and morphogenic dynamics to the properties of organisms and ecology, as well as neuroscience and evolution; however, preference will be given to areas in which modeling approaches are less established and, for this reason, bioinformatics- and genomics-related proposals fall outside the scope of the program. In all cases, preference will be given to work developing deep theoretical ideas relevant to experiments, suggesting new questions and new classes of experiments, introducing important, new concepts, and explaining data.

Theory must connect with experiment, and candidates should articulate their own views about the nature of this connection, rather than accepting conventional wisdom; theory is more than data analysis.

The program explicitly does not support translational or specifically human disease–related research.

Eligibility: To be eligible to be nominated for an Investigator in MMLS award, a scientist must be engaged in research related to the MMLS program and must not previously have been a Simons Investigator. He/she must have a primary appointment as a faculty member (tenured or non-tenured) at an educational institution in the United States, and the primary department affiliation must have a Ph.D. program. At the time of the appointment start date, an Investigator should be in the early stages of an academic career and must be within ten years of the start of his/her first faculty tenure track position.

Level and Duration of Funding:

• Appointments will begin August 1, 2019.
• A Simons Investigator in MMLS is appointed for a period of five years for up to $132,000 per year.
  • An Investigator will receive research support in the amount of $100,000 per year.
  • An additional $10,000 per year will be provided to the Investigator’s department.
  • The Investigator’s institution will receive an additional 20 percent per year in indirect costs.

OVPR Review Process:

Each nomination must submit the following:

• A cover page with name of nominee, academic rank, contact information, and department, date of appointment to the Penn faculty

• A letter of nomination from Department Chair/Division chief explaining the distinctive scientific contributions of the nominee and including discussion of a few important papers.
• A research statement prepared by the nominee that outlines the nominee's research vision and plans. (Two-page limit; references do not need to be included in the page limit but should not exceed an additional page.)
• Nominee’s curriculum vitae, including email address, Ph.D. year, institution, advisor, postdoctoral institutions and advisors, positions held subsequent to award of doctorate and the nominee’s up-to-date publication list.
• List of current and pending funding including total direct costs
• List of postdoctoral fellows and Ph.D. students supervised by or currently under the supervision of the nominee.
• Names of two senior scientists who will write letters of support should the applicant be selected as one of the Penn nominees. The letter writers can be the nominee’s Ph.D. and postdoc advisors or can be other scientists familiar with the nominee’s recent work and research goals.

Documents should be submitted in a single pdf document in the above listed order by August 24 to vprgrant@upenn.edu