ITHACA, N.Y. -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) has renewed funding for the Cornell IGERT Program in Nonlinear Systems. The new award of $3,338,800 will provide two-year graduate fellowships of $27,500 a year for 30 students over the next five years, beginning with 12 new students in the fall of 2004. The funds also will provide computer services and general support for the program offices. This is an extension of a previous five-year program launched in 1998.

IGERT is NSF's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program for training a diverse group of scientists and engineers to take advantage of a broad spectrum of career options. More than 100 programs at doctorate-granting institutions are involved, including a second IGERT program at Cornell in Biogeochemistry and Environmental Biocomplexity.

Students in Cornell's program will pursue doctorates in a wide variety of disciplines tied together by shared mathematical methods for the analysis of nonlinear systems, those in which the parts interact so that the behavior of the whole system is more than the sum of its parts. An example is the combined effects of multiple AIDS drugs on the human immune system in which simultaneous treatment with several drugs is far more effective in suppressing the virus than would be thought from the results observed with individual drugs.

Nonlinear problems appear in fields ranging from physics, mechanical engineering and computer science to the life sciences, sociology and finance. Interest in nonlinear systems has grown rapidly over the past few decades, partly because computers have made it possible to create simulations by constantly recalculating the various parts of the system as one brings about changes in another. Mathematical ingenuity is still required to avoid endless recalculation. More than Cornell faculty are affiliated with the IGERT program, which has four focus areas:

o dynamics of complex networks like the World Wide Web,

o studies of animal and machine locomotion and manipulation,

o nonlinear models of gene regulation and cell signaling, and

o pattern formation in biological systems such as the electrical activity of the human heart.

Fellowships are open to Cornell students but are restricted to U.S. citizens or permanent U.S. residents. Applications are available on the Web at http://cam.cornell.edu/igert_web_page/ . Inquiries should be directed to John Guckenheimer, professor of mathematics, at gucken@cam.cornell.edu .