Dr. Edward Archer, postdoctoral fellow in the Office of Energetics and Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is one of 100 top scientists chosen to attend the twelfth Annual National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI) conference, to be held November 13-15, in Irvine, California.

[Photo: Dr. Edward Archer]

The NAKFI conference will help forge a dynamic research community out of scientists, engineers, and doctors, using disparate approaches to address how and why molecules, cells, and organisms communicate with each other and modify their activities based on these communications. According to the conference website, it will also bring together physician-scientists defining the molecular mechanisms and consequences of signaling in cell-cell communication; evolutionary biologists and ecologists studying dynamic spatial and temporal interactions of complex communities from biofilms to animal groups; quantitative and theoretical experts predicting and modeling social networks; and engineers and applied systems specialists harnessing community organization for the development of useful medical products and bioremediation strategies.

Dr. Archer’s acceptance to the conference was based on his current research path, which focuses on human energy metabolism and the etiology of obesity. He recently developed a novel theory of the evolution of human energy physiology and plans on testing that theory via the reverse engineering of human energy physiology on the cellular, tissue, and organ levels, using an in silico computational model (i.e., agent-based modeling). In short, he is building virtual humans via computer code with the goal of examining—and hopefully supporting—his novel theory of the evolution.