Interdisciplinary Scientific Conference in South Africa to Support the South African PhD Project

American Association For The Advancement Of Science, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Institution: American Association for the Advancement of Science Title: Interdisciplinary Scientific Conference in South Africa to support the South African Ph.D. Project Ref.: Vaughan C. Turekian HRD 0850461 With National Science Foundation support, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) will support the National Research Foundation?s (NRF) South African Ph.D. Project by serving as a key collaborator in planning an interdisciplinary science and engineering capacity building conference in South Africa for the NRF?s Ph.D. students worldwide. The conference will provide opportunities to forge relationships between South African scientists and students, their counterparts at NSF CREST institutions in the U.S. and other members of the larger science communities in the U.S. and beyond. This NSF award will enable AAAS to support the intellectual development of the conference and travel by U.S.-based scientists and students to the meeting in South Africa. AAAS will serve a key collaborator in planning the scientific conference, developing the framework for the meeting, and through an advisory role, helping to build long term capacity to organize and conduct such meeting ? conveying best practices in the organization and execution of an interdisciplinary scientific conference and providing adaptable templates for conference materials. Intellectual Merit The proposed conference will provide significant educational and professional development experiences for the participating students from South Africa and the United States while providing in-person contact between U.S. and South African scientists that could facilitate future scientific collaborations among and between the participating scientists. Broader Impacts The proposed conference should significantly enhance the educational and professional development of the participating U.S. and South African students as well as facilitate the development of both institutional and faculty research collaborations between the participating U.S. and South African institutions and scientists.