9315876 Balantekin This award will support the airfare and lodging expenses for Dr. A. B. Balantekin, of the University of Wisconsin Department of Physics, to enable him to make one visit each year over the next three years, to conduct cooperative research with Dr. Serdar Kuyucak of the Department of Theoretical Physics at the Australian National University (ANU). The proposed collaborative research is in the area of theoretical nuclear physics with an emphasis on fusion reactions involving heavy ions at energies below the Coulomb barrier. Balantekin and his collaborators have developed a model for subbarrier fusion which incorporates the interacting boson model to describe the structure of target nuclei. Kuyucak at ANU, along with investigators from the University of Melbourne, developed an approximation scheme to study proton scattering. In November 1992 the Australian Department of Industry, Technology and Regional Development (DITARD), under the U.S. - Australia Cooperative Science Program, provided support for Dr. Kuyucak to come to the U.S. to begin work on bringing together the expertise of the respective groups. This award will enable the continuation of this newly established collaboration.