"It's impossible for everyone to look at every piece of the ocean," said Minhan Dai, dean of China's Xiamen University College of Oceanography and Environmental Science, on a recent visit to UD. "You need a global vision." The University of Delaware partners with at least 15 universities or organizations in China, representing collaborations and projects across the UD campus. One notable example is the 2008 establishment of the Joint Institute for Coastal Research and Management, a world-class global collaborative research initiative by UD's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment and Xiamen University's College of Oceanography and Environmental Science. In 2011, a dual Ph.D. program in oceanography was launched, giving students the opportunity to earn their degree simultaneously from both institutions if they study at least three semesters at the other institution. Chinese doctoral student Zhaoyun Chen officially became the first Ph.D. candidate in the dual program after successfully completing his oral qualifying exam in Xiamen this spring, where both UD professors and Xiamen University professors participated. Chen's research focuses on coastal upwelling. Also capitalizing on the opportunities of the oceanography partnership, UD marine biosciences doctoral graduate Emily Maung-Douglass decided to pursue her postdoctoral research at Xiamen. Working there in Professor Kejian Wang's lab, she is examining gene expression to determine how the fish species medaka copes with combined exposure to a low oxygen environment and synthetic estrogen pollution, both of which are often present in marine environments affected by wastewater discharge. "It's a really cool thing to be able to think of your research in a truly global way.... Do not let fear of the unknown or the logistics of international research hold you back." said Maung-Douglass. "My interactions with people here have given me a lot of insight and perspective in dealing with environmental issues that I might not have ever been exposed to otherwise." Brazil
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Allison Rogers helped to collect genetic samples from backyard chickens in Brazil. Photo courtesy of Carl Schmidt. |
A $150,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture and International Science and Education program (USDA-NIFA-ISE) fuels UD's partnership with the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA) in Brazil. With the goal of expanding global curricula and staying atop leading international agricultural practices, UD's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources is the grant's main recipient, along with the College of Arts and Sciences.
Associate professors Nicole Donofrio of plant and soil sciences and Greg Shriver of entomology and wildlife ecology were the initial co-principal investigators on the grant, with projects including research on rice blast fungus and coffee rust fungus, both of which are devastating to important South American and worldwide crops. UFLA graduate students Glauco Teixeira, Silvino Intra Moreira and Brenda Neves Porto, as well as post-doctoral researcher Thiago Maia from Brazil's University of Viçosa, have worked or are currently working in Donofrio's lab on these projects.
During spring break and again this summer, UD animal science graduate student Allison Rogers worked at UFLA to secure future collaborations for research on broiler chickens and to assist Carl Schmidt, associate professor of animal and food sciences—who has since joined the USDA grant—in his research on the global genomic diversity of chickens. Rogers helped to collect genetic samples from backyard chickens in Brazil, which will help aid Schmidt's studies on the genomics of the common chicken and how they respond to different environments, with the hope that this genetic information will lead to flock improvement in the United States.
Rogers noted that she saw similarities between UFLA and UD's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, making for a seamless collaborative environment. "UFLA is an agriculturally and historically based university and so we felt very at home when we arrived."
A UD-UFLA symposium and "Brazil week" activities are being planned for May 2014 in order to highlight projects and interactions between UD and other universities in Brazil.
"Colombia is among the top three countries in South America in higher education investment, and in total we have awarded more than 25 M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at UD as part of this global partnership," said UD's Gonzalo R. Arce, Charles Black Evans Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Arce, together with Hernan Navarro, research associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development, pioneered the UD-Colombian University partnership in 1997. An annual exchange program brings Colombian scholars to UD for a summer of research. Many of these outstanding students are typically admitted to UD doctoral programs. The collaboration is gradually expanding into other areas of engineering and into the College of Arts and Science.
This summer, 16 visiting scholars from universities in Colombia, Venezuela and Bolivia conducted research with UD faculty as part of the College of Engineering Summer Research Program. The College of Engineering now has formal agreements with a dozen Colombian universities, and over 100 applications every year for its graduate programs.
Top Colombian scholars participate in a recent summer research exchange in the College of Engineering.
In Spring 2013, Henry Arguello, Cesar Duarte, and Ana Ramirez, all faculty members at the Industrial University of Santander in Colombia, earned doctoral degrees in electrical and computer engineering at UD. Taking advantage of a program encouraging faculty in Colombia to earn a Ph.D. in the U.S., they completed their doctoral degrees here while on leaves of absence from their university, and have since returned to their faculty positions.
The Colombia partnerships have since expanded to include a musical collaboration with the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá and will expand to other Colombian universities. In 2011 a delegation of UD music professors and alumni traveled to Bogotá to perform a concert and to establish connections for future collaborations and programs. This summer, nearly 70 student musicians from UD's Symphony Orchestra participated in the orchestra's first international tour, performing with musicians from Central University and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.
"It's an opportunity to immerse in another culture," said orchestra director James Anderson. Long-term, he sees this three-year cycle–of establishing a partnership in the first year, bringing UD musicians overseas in the second, and bringing international students to UD in the third–as a model to build relationships across the world.
"This project is about perspective," said Anderson. "It's stepping out of your comfort zone to become better performers, better musicians and better citizens of the world."
