June 30, 2000

BIRMINGHAM, AL — A new $29,000 grant from the National Science Foundation will allow UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) faculty and students to strengthen their ties with researchers in Japan.

UAB Chemistry Assistant Professor Rigoberto Advincula, Ph.D. and Professor Jimmy Mays, Ph.D., earned the grant from the National Science Foundation’s East Asia and Pacific program. They will use it to form a new Japan Cooperative Research Program, according to Dean James McClintock, Ph.D., dean of the UAB School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

"Assistant Professor Rigoberto Advincula's NSF [National Science Foundation] award is a testament to his rapidly growing reputation for excellence and leadership in the scientific community," McClintock said. "The linkages created by this new program will boost the reputation of UAB abroad. It also will provide research opportunities for UAB faculty and, importantly, students."

Two years ago, UAB and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) established a link as sister universities to promote exchanges between the institutions. Officials hoped the relationship could help both universities win substantial research grants to foster relationships between the two countries.

"This new NSF grant really puts some teeth to our sister university relationship with TUAT, and I am sending some students there soon,’ Advincula said. “In fact, TUAT is sponsoring the first student, Tim Fulghum, to go there for a year starting this October."

Fulghum is a first-year graduate student in the department of chemistry.

TUAT is one of the premier universities in the Tokyo area, specializing in engineering and biotechnology. As part of the Japan Cooperative Research Program, students and faculty at both universities plan to study polymers as thin films. Applications reach into many fields, including microelectronics, medical and chemical industries. The findings could one day be used in variety of applications including solid state technologies like transistors and circuits. Other material applications of thin polymer film materials include flexible displays and protective coatings.

"Polymer science in Japan is very strong, and the researchers at TUAT are world leaders in ion-assisted deposition," Mays said. "Polymer science is a complex, interdisciplinary field. By working with the group in Japan, we combine our strength in polymer synthesis and thin films with TUAT expertise in ion assisted deposition in a vacuum."