Grad students receive international research opportunity

Two UW–Madison graduate students will have the opportunity to broaden their scientific and cultural horizons this summer as participants in the National Science Foundation’s 2004 East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes Program (EAPSI).

Among 150 U.S. graduate students to receive this opportunity, the UW–Madison participants will spend eight weeks in a lab where they learn about science, as well as the culture and language of the host country.

Todd Gibson, a graduate student in the chemical and biological engineering department, already started his program at the Korean Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology in Taejon, Korea, where he is isolating proteins and studying their interactions. He says that this research may aid his current work at UW–Madison in protein aggregation, a factor contributing to diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Timothy Lee, a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering, leaves for Kyoto University in Japan on Monday, June 28. Working with a professor who is a former UW–Madison postdoctoral fellow, Lee will study photocatalysis, a process used to clean water and air. Lee, who researches this process at UW–Madison, says the international experience will establish new collaborative projects that can be maintained once he returns to the United States.

In addition to the firsthand research experience, the EAPSI program allows graduate students to learn about the scientific policies and the general culture of different countries. These experiences deepen the students’ understanding of culture and research, both here and abroad.

“We live in a global village, and the better we know our neighbors that have different cultural backgrounds than ourselves, the easier it will be to be tolerant and understanding,” says Marc Anderson, a civil and environmental engineering professor who works with Lee on a number of projects. “Often we develop different perspectives than we had as isolated individuals without this international experience.”

This summer, 148 other U.S. graduate students will have similar international experiences in Australia, China and Taiwan, as well as Korea and Japan, in fields such as cancer research, computational neuroscience and humanoid robotics.

“For researchers, there are very valuable lessons to learn from widening our view,” says Gibson’s adviser, Professor Regina Murphy. There will be another benefit for Gibson, she adds: “He will gain new confidence in his ability to manage and succeed in unfamiliar territory.”

The EAPSI program, administered and managed by NSF, is now in its 14th year. Each EAPSI participant receives a $3,000 stipend and round-trip airfare. East Asian and Pacific organizations or institutions support the participants’ living expenses while abroad.