Sponsors

National Science Foundation, US                                                       Brazilian Center for Research in Physics (CBPF)

Summary

This worshop was designed with two primary goals in mind:

• Expand US-Brazilian research collaborations by establishing new working relationships among young US researchers and their Brazilian counterparts.
• Provide global leadership training to young researchers on both sides, including experience in team building, cross-cultural communication, project planning, proposal writing, and use of international R&D infrastructures.

US senior graduate students were matched with Brazilian students, according to complementary thesis research. The students were assembled into working groups to plan collaborative research projects that leveraged their respective capabilities.

Online project planning began a few months before the Workshop, with mentoring from thesis advisors on both sides.

In Rio, the groups continued project planning, visited local research facilities, went on cultural excursions, and took part in the International Conference on Advanced Materials sponsored by the International Union of Materials Research Societies (IUMRS-ICAM 2009), where they attended relevant symposia, presented posters about their thesis work, finalized their collaborative research plans, and made presentations to a review panel of senior researchers. It is hoped that viable collaborative projects will be generated for potential joint funding by US and Brazilian sponsors.

Ana Maria Rocco, Grupo de Materiais Condutores e Energia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

Guillermo Solorzano, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) (Brazil)

Elisa Saitovitch, Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas (CBPF), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) 

R.P.H. Chang, Materials Research Institute, Northwestern University (US)

Venue

Brazilian Center for Research in Physics (CBPF)

International Conference on Advanced Materials (IUMRS-ICAM 2009) 

Participating Brazilian Institutions

• Brazilian Center for Research in Physics (CBPF)
• Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro(UFRJ)
• Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)
• Universidade Estadual da Zona Oeste (UEZO)
• University of Sao Paulo Campinas (UMICAMP)

Participants

Advanced graduate students (3-4 year) performing thesis-related research in science and engineering fields (i.e., chemistry, physics, materials science, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, applied math, biology, etc.) 

Role of Thesis Advisors

Thesis advisors agreed to serve as online project mentors before and during the Workshop and remain available after the Workshop to lead funding proposals for promising joint projects that may result.

The following professors provided on-site mentoring  at the workshop:

• Elisa Saitovitch, Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas (CBPF), Rio de Janeiro
• Magda B. Fontes, Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas (CBPF), Rio de Janeiro
• Ana Maria Rocco, Grupo de Materiais Condutores e Energia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
• R.P.H. Chang, Materials Research Institute, Northwestern Universit
• Robson Pacheco, Grupo de Materiais Condutores e Energia, Universidade Estadual da Zona Oeste (UEZO)

Workshop Schedule

Working Group Assignments

Workshop Report (pending)