Thursday, June 28, 2012

[DMANET] RECOMB-AB/BE - Early Registration ends July 2 - Open Problems in Algorithmic Biology / Bioinformatics Education

EARLY REGISTRATION ENDS SOON: JULY 2, 2012

RECOMB Satellite Conference on Open Problems in Algorithmic Biology
(RECOMB-AB)
August 27-29, 2012
St. Petersburg, Russia
http://bioinf.spbau.ru/ab2012
recombab2012 at gmail dot com

RECOMB Satellite Conference on Bioinformatics Education
(RECOMB-BE)
August 26, 2012
St. Petersburg, Russia
http://bioinf.spbau.ru/be2012
recombbe2012 at gmail dot com

KEY DATES:
Abstract submission deadline Expired
Request for visa voucher Monday July 2, 2012
Early registration deadline (discount rate) Monday July 2, 2012
Online registration deadline (full rate) Friday August 17, 2012
On-site registration (full rate) Available at conferences
RECOMB-BE conference August 26, 2012
RECOMB-AB conference August 27-29, 2012

OVERVIEW:

The First RECOMB Satellite Conference on Open Problems in Algorithmic
Biology (RECOMB-AB) will be held August 27-29, 2012 in St. Petersburg,
Russia. This workshop brings together leading researchers in the
mathematical, computational, and life sciences to discuss current
challenges in computational biology, with an emphasis on open
algorithmic problems. The program will consist of invited speakers,
contributed speakers, posters, and discussion panels.

The Fourth Annual RECOMB Conference on Bioinformatics Education
(RECOMB-BE) will be held in St. Petersburg, Russia, August 26, 2012.
RECOMB-BE 2012 will consist of invited presentations, oral
presentations selected from submitted educational problems, and
discussion panels, all of which focus on improving bioinformatics
education.

Saint Petersburg (formerly known as Leningrad) is Russia's second
largest city. The large historic center of Saint Petersburg, threaded
with canals dotted with baroque bridges, is a UNESCO World Heritage
site. Its Hermitage Museum, housed in the Winter Palace (formerly
called the Palace of the Russian Tsars), is one of the world's
greatest collections of art.

REGISTRATION:

Registration is now open through either conference website:
http://bioinf.spbau.ru/ab2012
http://bioinf.spbau.ru/be2012

We offer discounts for early registration through July 2;
discounts for jointly registering for both conferences;
and discounts for students. See the website for full pricing
information. If you have any questions about or difficulties
with the registration process, please contact us at
recombab2012 at gmail dot com.

The conference website also provides information about visas.
We recommend starting the visa process as soon as possible.

THEME AND SCOPE (RECOMB-AB: Open Problems in Algorithmic Biology):

RECOMB-AB aims to discuss recent advances and present open algorithmic
problems in different areas of life sciences. Today, life sciences are
in the midst of a major paradigm shift driven by computational
sciences. RECOMB-AB emphasizes that this is a two-way street: while
life sciences have greatly benefited from new computational ideas,
they also are a major source of new open problems and inspiration for
computational sciences. RECOMB-AB brings together leading researchers
in the mathematical, computational, and life sciences to discuss
interesting, challenging, and well-formulated open problems in
algorithmic biology.

Many areas of computational sciences started as an attempt to solve
applied problems and later became more theoretically-oriented. These
theoretical aspects may be very valuable even if they stray away from
the applied problems that originally motivated them. Thus, RECOMB-AB
is interested in a wide range of well-formulated open problems. Some
of them may be rather theoretical and have limited biological
application. The solutions of others might provide valuable tools for
biologists or might lead to new biological discoveries. This blend of
theoretical and applied problems is a fascinating feature of
algorithmic biology.

The discussion panels at RECOMB-AB will also address the worrisome
proliferation of ill-formulated computational problems in
bioinformatics. While some biological problems can be translated into
well-formulated computational problems, others defy all attempts to
bridge biology and computing. This may result in computational biology
papers that lack a formulation of a computational problem they are
trying to solve. While some such papers may represent valuable
biological contributions (despite lacking a well-defined computational
problem), others may represent computational "pseudoscience."
RECOMB-AB will address the difficult question of how to evaluate
computational papers that lack a computational problem formulation.

RECOMB-AB KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

Max Alekseyev (University of South Carolina)
Vineet Bafna (University of California, San Diego)
Mikhail Gelfand (Russian Academy of Sciences and Moscow State University)
Sorin Istrail (Brown University)
Richard Karp (University of California, Berkeley)
Bernard Moret (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)
Stephen O'Brien (Saint Petersburg University)
Pavel Pevzner (University of California, San Diego)
Marie-France Sagot (INRIA, Université Lyon 1)
Cenk Sahinalp (Simon Fraser University)
Ron Shamir (Tel Aviv University)
Glenn Tesler (University of California, San Diego)
Tandy Warnow (The University of Texas at Austin)
Michael S. Waterman (University of Southern California)

THEME AND SCOPE (RECOMB-BE: Bioinformatics Education):

The goals of RECOMB-BE 2012 are twofold: to showcase best practices of
teaching algorithmic bioinformatics and to demonstrate and discuss a
novel learning framework (ROSALIND) for students to understand
bioinformatics problems through programming within a guided feedback
environment.

While biology has been transformed into a computational science in the
last decade, the biological curriculum remains largely unchanged with
respect to computational issues. The question: "How should we teach
bioinformatics to biology students?" has become of the utmost
importance, as many universities have not only founded undergraduate
bioinformatics programs but are considering the addition of new
computational courses to the standard biology curriculum - a change
that would represent a dramatic paradigm shift in biology education.

RECOMB-BE KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

Michael Brudno (University of Toronto)
Uri Keich (University of Sydney)
Chris Lee (University of California, Los Angeles)
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