American Physical Society Travel Grant

This year, for the second time, we have received a US$2,000 travel grant from the American Physical Society's Committee on International Scientific Affairs (CISA) to cover travel expenses of one XAFS School participant from a developing country. In conjunction with this travel grant, the course and lodging fees for our scholarship participant will be waived.

This scholarship is open to any scientist working or studying at an institution in a nation defined by the World Bank as being of low or lower middle income. For a complete list of nations and their World Bank categories, see this page.
Although both China and India are listed as lower middle income countries, both of these nations host synchrotrons and have growing scientific communities. This program is targeted at residents of smaller nations, who will be given priority over our colleagues from China and India. ¹
This person must be able to obtain a visa in time to arrive in Chicago before July 5, 2009, when the course begins.
Citizens of Cuba, North Korea, Burma, Iran, and Syria are not eligible for the scholarship.

Applying for the scholarship

Applicants to this program should fill out the application form. Use the section marked "Describe your previous XAFS or Synchrotron experience, how you plan to use XAFS in your research, and what you expect to learn in this course." to identify yourself as a scholarship applicant and to let us know why you are a good candidate for this scholarship. We will judge applications on these criteria:

How you will use the information conveyed by this course to advance your own research
How you will disseminate this information to your colleagues and students when you return to your home institution

You are allowed to use more than the 300 words specified on the application page to describe your application, but we will appreciate and reward a concise application.

The deadline for applications is May 11, 2009. Any applicants who are not selected for the scholarship will be considered for normal, paying admission into the summer school.

Questions... Comments...

Questions about the APS XAFS School should be directed to Julie Cross.
Questions about the judging of the applications for the scholarship should be also directed to Bruce Ravel.
Questions about the American Physical Society travel grant program should be directed to Amy Flatten, email: <flatten AT aps DOT org>.

We understand that resources for the physical sciences are tight in India and China -- and, indeed, in many of the nations the World Bank classifies as upper middle income -- and that scientists from those nations would benefit by this opportunity. With our sponsors from the American Physical Society, we decided to target this scholarship opportunity to scientists living and working in smaller economies. (1)