Talks by Tom Schneider

I give talks about molecular information theory, including information theory, sequence logos, sequence walkers, and the theory of molecular machines. My standard talk

One hour talks generally have two parts:

• Introduction to Molecular Information Theory. The first half hour covers essential introductory material: information theory, sequence logos and sequence walkers (i.e. Level 0 theory).

• The second half hour delves into one of three alternatives:

  1. Evolution of Binding Sites. Introduces the concept of Rsequence ~ Rfrequency, which was my PhD thesis in 1984 and then shows how Rsequence evolves towards Rfrequency. The slides are online. This material is essential to understanding molecular information theory but I frequently do not cover the topic since it is so old. "Intelligent design" creationists have had a very difficult time since the publication of the Ev paper.

  2. Flippers, Flappers and Flip-Flops in DNA Binding. This corresponds to three papers published in Nucleic Acids Research (baseflip, repan3 and fff) and a patent on molecular computing. Besides these materials, a general abstract is available. This material demonstrates clearly what is missed if one uses consensus sequences.

  3. Theory of Molecular Machines (Levels 1 - 4). An introduction to molecular machine efficiency, as described in the Press release for the 1998 AAAS Annual meeting. The abstract is available online. This is the most advanced, recent, and therefore (for me at least!) fascinating, material.

These talks are designed to be 1 or 2 hours long (including questions). Because the four segments take about a half hour each, all of these topics can be covered in two hours, in the order given above. In one hour I give the introduction followed by one of the three second halves. If I have less than an hour I will have to skip parts of the second topic, because the first part of the talk is required to get people up to steam.

Bibliography for Tom Schneider

Picture of Tom Schneider

Travel funds are tight, but I will be happy to travel if I have the time and provided that you can sponsor the entire trip, paying for airfare, lodging, meals and ground transportation. NIH needs a minimum of 8 weeks to process travel papers. To start the process we need a physical letter of invitation that states that no United States Federal or foreign governmental funds will be used (State funds are ok). (This means that you can have funds both from a government and from other sources, but my travel cannot come from the governmental sources. Also, both US and foreign governmental funds are excluded.) For example, "No U.S. government funds will be used to pay for any part of the travel." Other details of how things are to be paid for have to be worked out. Generally it is easiest when payment is "in kind", meaning that the host or sponsor purchases the airline ticket, and pays lodging meals and ground transportation. Government travelers should not receive any funding directly. Invitation letters can be sent via email or on official letterhead and mailed. The rules for honoraria change all the time but currently I can only receive an honorarium for two or more lectures given on two or more days. For reimbursements (eg, if I travel by car the rate is 0.365 $/mile) checks need to be made payable to DHHS (not to me! I can't accept it!). If reimbursment is necessary, we will invoice you by mail.

Checklist:

• Letter of invitation includes the statement that "No U.S. government funds will be used to support any part of this travel".
• Exactly what expenses will be covered. For example, airfare (will sponsor purchase and send to Tom, or will DHHS be reimbursed), lodging (will they book the room and pay for it directly, or will DHHS be reimbursed), meals (will they pay directly for Tom's meals or will DHHS be reimbursed), mileage and parking on this end, and taxis at destination?
• Travel packages require time to be completed: 60 Days for Domestic Sponsored Travel, 90 Days for Foreign Sponsored Travel.

Arrangement handling for invitations:

After we have agreed on a presentation (time, date, place, material) if there are travel arrangements to be made, the person handling it is:

Donna Arnold
Secretary, Center for Cancer Research
    Nanobiology Program
NCI-Frederick, Building 469, Room 151
Frederick, MD 21702-1201
Ph# 301-846-5532
Fax# 301-846-5598
Email: arnoldd@mail.ncifcrf.gov

Thank you for your invitation!