This award from the Division of Chemistry (CHE), with co-funding from the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE), supports a new international Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site between the University of Florida (UF) and South America for the summers of 2008-2010. The U.S. program will be under the overall direction of Randolph Duran of the University of Florida (UF) and the South American program under the overall direction of Jose Manuel Riveros of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. Duran will be assisted by Adrian Roitberg of UF in the administration and coordination of the U.S. students. Fifteen U.S. undergraduates each summer will travel to either Brazil or Argentina to participate in a twelve week chemistry research program. In Argentina, U.S. students will integrate into research laboratories at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and in Brazil, U.S. students will integrate into research laboratories at one of three locations: the University of Sao Paulo (USP); Sao Paulo State University (UNESP); or the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP). This program is set up as a bilateral exchange and through a consortium of South American funding, an equivalent number of Brazilian and Argentinian students will be brought to the U.S. over the 12 week period and fully integrated into domestic REU sites. The U.S. students will each spend the vast majority of their summer in 'science immersion' distributed in groups of 2-4 students per institution. The main scientific focus of the participating laboratories is chemistry or molecular biodiversity. A three-day weekend post-REU meeting and poster session each October after the program ends will be held at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
The iREU site in chemistry was setup as an exchange program between the US and Argentina and Brazil, starting in 2008. The program sent over 40 undergraduate students from all over the US to South America in these years, for 12 weeks of intensive research with the top scientists at the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina), the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and the State University of Campinas (Brazil). Students from those institutions came to the University of Florida for 12 weeks of research in chemistry. The overall experience was incredible satisfying to both parts and resulted in increased international vivisibility for the US, with a number of publications acknowleging the award. The students that went to South America were asked to present their results in the form of a poster at the National meetinf of the American Chemical Society in the spring after their return to the US. This experience was highlighted by the students as a turning point in their career. Most students in the program continued their studies in graduate school, and a number of them secured NSF GRFPs, commenting that participation in the iREU program was viewed by the evaluation committees as a significant advantage for their chances.
