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Integrative and Comparative Biology Advance Access originally published online on June 4, 2009
Integrative and Comparative Biology 2009 49(1):7-14; doi:10.1093/icb/icp034
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Grand challenges in organismal biology

Kurt Schwenk1,*,{dagger}, Dianna K. Padilla2,{dagger}, George S. Bakken3,{dagger} and Robert J. Full4,{dagger}
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-3043, USA; 2Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-5245, USA; 3Department of Biology and Center for Biodiversity Studies, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN 47809, USA; 4Department of Integrative Biology, 3060 Valley Life Sciences Building, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3140, USA

Correspondence: *E-mail: kurt.schwenk{at}uconn.edu

A renaissance in organismal biology has been sparked by recent conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and computational advances in the life sciences, along with an unprecedented interdisciplinary integration with Mathematics, Engineering, and the physical sciences. Despite a decades-long trend toward reductionist approaches to biological problems, it is increasingly recognized that whole organisms play a central role in organizing and interpreting information from across the biological spectrum. Organisms represent the nexus where sub- and supra-organismal processes meet, and it is the performance of organisms within the environment that provides the material for natural selection. Here, we identify five "grand challenges" for future research in organismal biology. It is intended that these challenges will spark further discussion in the broader community and identify future research priorities, opportunities, and directions, which will ultimately help to guide the allocation of support for and training in organismal biology.

{dagger}These authors contributed equally to this work.


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