U.S.-Vietnam Planning Visit: Computational Organolithium Chemistry

Fisk University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

0454045 Pratt This award supports a planning visit to enable Professor Lawrence Pratt of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee to meet with Professor Bui Manh Nhi at Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy in Vietnam. The visit will include workshops consisting of lectures and laboratory exercises on computational chemistry applied to organolithium compounds that will train investigators and students in Vietnam. This will then lead to collaborative research projects between the Vietnamese, the PI and his graduate students at Fisk University in which the students will have the opportunity to visit the Ho Chi Minh City University. In turn some of the Vietnamese students may enroll in Fisk University for graduate work to further their collaborative research projects. The study of organolithium compounds is a field of major importance in the development of new synthetic methods, and computational methods are a major tool to study these compounds. Although Vietnam is a developing country without extensive laboratory facilities for research, the University of Pedagogy does have a computational chemistry laboratory that is sufficiently equipped for moderate research projects, or more extensive research projects in collaboration with other institutions. Much of the research performed in Vietnam is published in internal reports but not in international journals. The PI will provide the Vietnamese information on the preparation of research articles, the peer review process and publishing in international journals. It is anticipated that these early collaborations between the scientists and students from each country will lead to long-term collaborations that will benefit both institutions.