October 5, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Scientists from Brazil and the United States will discuss scientific studies of mutual interests and explore future partnerships at a three-day symposium in Washington on Oct. 24-26. The Ohio State University Medical Center is a co-organizer of the groundbreaking event, which is the first of its kind between the two countries.
More than 50 researchers and officials from the two countries are expected to speak at the event that includes presentations on research in bioenergy, climate change, biodiversity and Amazon studies, plant genomics, policy studies, optics and photonics, vaccines and drug discovery, stem cells, and cancer.
The symposium commemorates the 50th anniversary of the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), a public taxpayer-funded foundation with the mission of supporting research in all fields of knowledge within the state of São Paulo, Brazil.
Ohio State became involved in organizing the event through a grant from the National Science Foundation. Daniel Janies, an associate professor in the department of biomedical informatics at The Ohio State University, is the principal investigator.
“This symposium highlights the extensive research in Brazil and the opportunities for future collaboration with U.S. scientists,” said Samuel M. Scheiner, program director of the division of environmental biology for the National Science Foundation.
Science and technology play a very significant role in Brazil, according to Janies, who also is one of the presenters. “The rising level of research funding in Sao Paulo has allowed their scientists to focus on important problems rather than being overwhelmed with finding financial resources for their studies,” said Janies. “By taking the lead to organize this symposium, Ohio State is opening doors for much broader collaborations between Brazil and the United States. International partnerships are key for addressing many problems that are global in scope, for example, the evolution and spread of infectious diseases,” he added.
Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, scientific director of FAPESP, says Brazilian researchers are looking forward to the conference. “An important part of FAPESP’s strategy is to develop more international collaboration in science involving researchers in Sao Paulo, Brazil,” he said. “FAPESP has important agreements with agencies such as NSF in the U.S., the Research Councils in the UK and DFG in Germany, through which we are supporting high impact collaborative research projects.”
FAPESP is a state research foundation, funded by the Sao Paulo State taxpayers: 1% of all revenues generated by the state goes straight to FAPESP and it is its constitutional duty to direct at least 95% of this income to financing scientific research in all fields of human knowledge. FAPESP became the second largest research financer in Brazil and the state of Sao Paulo is responsible for almost half of all scientific knowledge created in Brazil.
Other Ohio State researchers presenting at the conference are Erich Grotewold in the college of food, agriculture environmental science and Wondwossen Gebreyes in the college of veterinary medicine.
A complete list of presenters for the three-day symposium is available at: http://www.fapesp.br/week/program.
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