Welcome! The NSF Modulus conference on Models for uncovering rules and unexpected phenomena in biological systems will be hosted jointly by George Mason University (GMU, PI Seshaiyer), Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT, PI Das), University of California, Irvine (UCI, PI Nie) and University of Colorado, Boulder (Colorado, PI Cameron). The conference will be held at George Mason University on August 11-12, 2022 and will bring together 40 faculty experts including senior faculty members, junior faculty members and post-doctoral students as well as experts from government labs, funding agencies and the industry who work in areas that bridge mathematics, computer science, physics and biology. This diverse group will help refine emerging research areas in biological systems via advances in Models for Uncovering Rules and Unexpected Phenomena in Biological Systems (MODULUS). The specific conference activities will focus on topics (not limited to):

1. Showcase the progress and achievement made by the current MODULUS funded projects.

2. Identify challenging biological questions that require new mathematical and computational methods or new synergies between current approaches.

3. Explore emerging mathematical, theoretical and computational approaches needed to connect molecular and cellular scales for complex biological systems.

4. Explore opportunities for collaborations among biologists, mathematicians and computer scientists.

Given the interdisciplinary nature of the meeting, we anticipate that the workshop will foster collaboration with research groups from academia, government and industry. An explicit goal of this meeting is to produce a white paper summarizing the specific research areas and techniques that will drive discovery in the Rules of Life. The conference activities that are planned will also encourage networking between participants from academia, government and industry. Finally, we hope to increase awareness of, and interest in opportunities for research and career growth in the broad area of biological systems through this meeting.