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The cultural and academic exchanges go both ways, too. Students are
often educating their host mentors and labmates about American traditions
and education systems, including how community college students can
work their way up to doctoral studies. And those international colleagues
are keen for collaborations with U.S. research groups. “It is really crucial for
their success and ours,” says Flores.Faculty committed to developing world leaders
International researchers seek out student talent to develop; they
also hope such talent will enrich the culture of their laboratory and their
institution. In addition, researchers want to diversify their portfolio of
research resources. “It’s a small universe,” says Flores. And to put it simply,
he adds, “we can do better science together.”
Georges Zissis says the LSAMP-NICE international exchanges help his
university increase its visibility to U.S. Ph.D. students. Even though the
University of Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, named for a chemistry Nobel laureate
and specializing in STEM fields, is the second-largest research university
in France, it is not well known internationally, says Zissis, a professor
of electrical engineering and vice rector for international and European
projects. And, he says, the university’s values align nicely with the program’s.
“As a university that values diversity and inclusion, we are always
looking to attract students with different horizons, cultures, and ways
of thinking,” says Zissis. Hosting U.S. students in Toulouse’s laboratories
opens doors to future collaborations and connections. “Those students may
come back for Ph.D.s or postdocs, or they will move somewhere else in the
world, but we’ll still have them in our network.” Building expanded research
networks effectively is something that French universities want to import
from the United States, too, he says.
Zissis is eager to host students in his own research group in the future.
He leads an artificial-lighting technology group of about 20 members with
five other professors. LSAMP-NICE students have a quality that he seeks in
students, called gnac in French slang (pronounced “nyak”), which means
“driven.”
“People coming from marginalized areas of society want to become
someone; they have this determination and motivation, this gnac,” he says.
“If these students have the necessary knowledge and resourcefulness, then
it’s up to me to build excellence within them.”
It’s that commitment to mentoring and nurturing student excellence
that defines LSAMP-NICE research faculty. “Science should be open to
everyone,” says Zissis, and he knows that attracting more women and
students of color to electrical engineering research will improve his entire
field. In his own research, he notes that the way people use color in lighting
is highly dependent on their global culture and environment. “Researchers
from diverse backgrounds bring societal knowledge and ideas that you will
not find elsewhere,” he says.LSAMP Alumni Success Stories
Three researchers who participated in the Illinois LSAMP Bridge to the
Doctorate program while getting their Ph.D.s at the University of Illinois
Chicago found that their experiences with international collaborators
shaped their career paths and decisions.Chemical and materials engineer Deisy Carvalho Fernandes is now
a Presidential Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University in
Providence, Rhode Island. During her doctoral studies, Carvalho Fernandes
spent two 3-month sessions at the University of Bordeaux in France in the
laboratory of Philippe Poulin, learning how to work with gel polymers for 3D
printing.“The techniques I learned in France helped me create a diverse research
portfolio to be competitive in the job market,” says Carvalho Fernandes,
who is currently applying for assistant professor positions. The ability to
make high-tech materials out of a 3D-printed gel opened up new directions
for her research into membranes, filtration, electronic devices, and
biomedicine.
Carvalho Fernandes, who is Brazilian, notes that experiencing two new
national and academic cultures—those of the United States and France—as
a Ph.D. student has also strengthened her leadership capabilities. “My
group will have people from different backgrounds with different ways of
working. It will make me a more adaptable PI.”
Cancer biologist and first-generation scientist Jason Garcia now works
at Tempus Labs in Chicago in their biological modeling lab, a facility that
tests new therapies on patient-derived organoids. He says the LSAMP
program helped him in every aspect of his graduate education. “It helped
me financially with classes and tutoring, boosted my confidence, and
allowed me to begin research sooner,” he says.Garcia’s visit to South Africa came at a time when he was deciding
whether to continue in a research career or to go into teaching or policy.
While on tours of labs and universities there, he saw many people of color
doing research successfully, which reaffirmed his desire to continue on a
research path. “It made me realize how much I enjoy contributing to cancer
research and it solidified my decision to go into industry.”
Postdoctoral fellow Joshua Ames says his visit to South Africa was a
much-needed “maturity boost” for him as a senior doctoral student. Just
as it did for Garcia, his exposure to a different scientific setting instilled
confidence in him to pursue a research career.
“I didn’t think I was competitive for grants and awards, but having
structured mentoring and mentors on my side was transformative,” says
Ames, who won an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship as a graduate
student. Now as a postdoctoral researcher in immunology at the University
of Washington in Seattle, Ames’s goal is to eventually start his own
research lab at a research-intensive institution. “I may not have continued
on to do a postdoc if not for the LSAMP program—it helped me maintain my
love for academic science without feeling like an imposter.”0408Product.indd 114 3/31/22 9:36 AM