Michigan State University is one of five universities nationwide to be awarded a $25 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a center, bringing together scientists from across the nation to study evolution in action in both natural and virtual settings.

The center, officially titled “BEACON, an NSF Science and Technology Center for the Study of Evolution in Action,” will serve as a resource for multidisciplinary academics and industry. It will unite biologists who study natural evolutionary processes with computer scientists and engineers who are harnessing these processes to solve real-world problems, ranging from the development of safer, more efficient cars to systems that detect computer intrusions.

"It is a great honor to be selected as one of five to be funded, out of hundreds of universities submitting pre-proposals," says Erik Goodman, MSU professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the center.

"MSU's biologists, computer scientists and engineers have a long history of strong collaboration in study of evolution—in nature and in the computer—and of applying evolutionary principles to solve problems for industry. It is the strength of these researchers at MSU that made [the university] a strong candidate for a new NSF Science and Technology Center."

Source: Erik Goodman, Michigan State University

Writer: Suban Nur Cooley