Center for Selective Carbon - Hydrogen (C-H) Functionalization (CCHF) will coordinate and support a highly collaborative international exchange program with sites in Japan, South Korea and Germany. During the exchanges, students will participate in collaborative projects directed towards developing new approaches to making molecules in a streamlined and sustainable way. These new approaches will have impact on modern medicine and manufacturing, including drug discovery and materials science. This proposal builds upon a previous NSF Science Across Virtual Institutes (SAVI) program and provides the exciting opportunity to capitalize on the collaborative bonds already established to grow a truly diverse and globally prepared next generation of scientists that benefit from an integrated and successful global research collective. The overarching scientific theme that brings these international teams together is C-H functionalization, a science that is at the leading edge of academic chemical research.
The aim of this International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) proposal is to establish a vibrant training environment for collaborative global research in the general field of C?H functionalization. This will be achieved by means of a productive international research collaborative, the Global Institute for C-H Functionalization (GICHF). This program will involve student exchanges and collaborations between the CCHF and three major international centers in the general field of C-H functionalization. These centers are the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI)-funded Institute for Transformative Bio-Molecule (WPI-ITbM) at Nagoya University, Japan, the Institutes for Basic Sciences-funded Center for Catalytic Hydrocarbon Functionalizations (IBS-CF) at KAIST, South Korea, and the Photocatalysis Center based at the University of Regensburg, Germany. Each year a cohort of CCHF students, consisting of 3 graduate and 5 undergraduate students will perform 8-12 week exchanges between May-August with the international partners. The CCHF will also host international students, funded by the international partners, to ensure reciprocity in the collaborative exchanges. Programming throughout the year will be in place to prepare the students for the research exchanges and to ensure they make the most of these experiences. The experience will include a GICHF annual meeting, which will be hosted, on a rotating basis, at one of our international partners. The annual meeting will serve as an opportunity to bring together the entire student cohort as well as faculty from the United States, for a week-long brainstorming, community building, and educational event with our international partners.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
