Ongoing Programs in Europe

The International Research Experiences for Undergraduates program offers undergraduate students the valuable opportunity to pursue scientific research at universities in France, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. 2009 IREU students have been selected and participated in an orientation in Washington DC in April, 2009. Students who had participated in the IREU program in the summer of 2008 attended the Spring 2009 ACS National Meeting in Salt Lake City, UT, and presented their research during the Committee on International Activities’ International Reception.

ACS-IREU 09 Participants Attend a Dual Use Research Workshop and Get Ready for Their Summer Abroad

Nineteen of this year’s ACS-IREU scholars came to ACS headquarters in Washington, D.C. April 9-11 to prepare for their research experiences in Germany, France, Italy and Scotland. After a warm welcome by several ACS executives and staff members, including Madeleine Jacobs, Denise Creech, Mary Kirchhoff, Bradley Miller, Julie Callahan and Lourdes Echegoyen, students attended enlightening presentations by two of last-year’s participants, members of the Chemistry Division and the Office of International Science and Engineering at NSF, members of the European Commission to the United States, and the ACS-IREU program manager. Students received detailed information about the logistics and requirements of the ACS-IREU program and about the ins and outs of laboratory research, travel, and life in the respective countries. In addition, the session at NSF discussed domestic and international programs and fellowships available for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.

On the last morning of the orientation, students participated in a 3-hour workshop on Responsible Conduct of Research in the Context of Dual Use. This was the first time that the topic of dual use research was formally introduced to undergraduates in chemistry. The workshop, organized by Lourdes Echegoyen from the Office of International Activities at ACS, included presentations by two experts in the field, Prof. Margaret Kosal from the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech and Prof. Michael Imperiale from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Michigan. During the break-out sessions, students discussed and wrote reports on dual-use case studies based on real, published science but with fictitious scenarios. The case studies were prepared especially for this workshop. To provide guidance for their discussion and their future careers in research, participants also received a copy of the most recent edition of On Being A Scientist - A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research, published by the National Academy of Sciences.

2008 IREU Students at the Spring 2009 ACS National Meeting, Salt Lake City