APS Launches Exchange Program with Brazil

APS, in conjunction with the Sociedade Brasileira de Física (SBF), has announced a new exchange program for professors and graduate students. Up to five physics professors and ten graduate students per year from each country will be able to use the new program to travel between the two nations.

The two societies have each set aside $50,000 to help pay travel expenses for physicists interested in participating in a scientific and cultural exchange between the two countries. It is the first time that the APS has partnered directly with another society for such an exchange program.

“The program will permit physics professors from either Brazil or the US to go to the other country to give a lecture series,” said Michele Irwin, APS’s international programs administrator. She added that the exchange program’s aim was “to give both students and professors the opportunity to experience other cultures and experience science in other cultures.”

Physics professors can apply for up to $4,000 in travel grants to either teach a short course or deliver a physics lecture series abroad. A “visiting” professor along with his or her “host” university will submit a joint proposal to participate in the Professorship/Lecture Program.

The options for graduate students interested in participating are more open, as they can come up with their own program ideas. Students will develop their own proposals with their Brazilian or US hosts, who will likely be a professor in the same field of study in the host country. Up to $3,000 will be awarded to each student to use towards attending a short-course or summer institute, temporary lab work, visiting with a professor or research group.

A committee of representatives from both APS and SBF will review submitted proposals and choose the winning candidates. US awardees will be funded through the APS while Brazilian awardees will be funded through the SBF.

The first deadline for applications is April 30th this year. More information about the application requirements can be found on the website of the APS Office of International Affairs.

The new Brazil program is based on the similar India exchange program APS started in the fall of 2008. The India exchange program, coordinated with the Indo-US Science and Tech Forum, has turned out to be quite popular, with 16 professors and 24 grad students having participated so far.

Organizers of the Brazil exchange program expect it to be similarly popular with physicists in both the United States and Brazil. Irwin said that the APS has been making an effort to develop contacts and programs with countries with developing economies. She added also that the APS Committee on International Scientific Affairs is also looking at different ideas for possible future programs with China.