A group of materials researchers at the University of Chicago will continue collaborative research with counterparts at the Universidad de Chile and the Universidad de Santiago. The core activity of this ?Chicago-Chile Materials Collaboration" is to provide ten-week internships for six selected Chilean students each year at the U. of Chicago, and for a like number of University of Chicago students at the Chilean universities. The project also sponsors visits by faculty in both directions. The research centers on the consequences of strong deformation in soft materials. This project enhances existing tandem research efforts in granular motion under vibration and collision. It extends collaboration on buckling of liquid-supported molecular films engendered under the previous grant. It further investigates a broad spectrum of problems, including the interaction between foci of curvature in a crumpled sheet, the stochastic nature of abrupt stress relaxation events in crumpled sheets and in magnets, puzzling kinetic growth patterns resembling Laplacian growth in molecular films and in drying suspensions, anomalies in the collective motion in confined colloidal suspensions and in sedimenting suspensions, the storage and transport of magnetization information in disordered magnets, the connection between molecular events and organized crawling motion in eucaryotic cells.
Despite the manifest excellence of the Chilean partners' research and the excellent academic preparation and motivation of the Chilean students, these faculty and students are under-represented on the scientific scene. This pool of under-recognized talent represents a major opportunity. The Chicago researchers benefit by tapping this talent pool. Chicago student participants benefit by experiencing the creative scientific culture of the Chilean partners. During the first grant period, these internships made a major impact on many of the students' careers. As in the last funding cycle, the experience of working on current research problems with leaders in this research is expected to trigger a new level of performance and activity in these students. The program is also expected to spawn new collaborations between senior researchers at the partner institutions, as in the past funding cycle.
Science manpower and international scientific links got a boost from a recent exchange project co-funded by the National Science Foundation and its counterpart agency in Chile. The project aimed to train and develop college students at the Universidad de Chile, the Universidad de Santiago and the University of Chicago. From 2004 to 2013 the project brought 48 Chileans to work as interns in University of Chicago research groups over their summer break---January to March. It brought 50 University of Chicago students to work in Chilean labs over their own summer break---June-August. The project grew out of common research interests between physicists at the three institutions. All three are prominent in the field known as soft matter, ie. materials that have dramatically distinctive behavior because of their weak connectivity and great deformability. Examples are granular materials, thin elastic sheets, colliding liquid droplets and chaotic water waves. Returning interns praised their research experience highly. When asked how the program benefitted them, they repeatedly stressed the value of being responsible for their own project. Many students had worked in research labs, but only as helpers. In this program they gained greatly in ability and confidence. They uniformly recommended that the program be continued. Two former interns are now junior faculty members at the Universidad de Chile. Several have obtained doctorates; many others are in doctoral programs. Former interns are co-authors of over sixty research papers. It is clear that this exchange program made a real impact in developing young scientists and in promoting international co-operation.
