Chris Shearer, a doctoral student student in civil engineering, was recently invited by the Australian Academy of Science (AAS) to attend the National Science Founmdation 2011 East Asia and Pacific 
Summer Institutes (EAPSI) program. This competitive summer program will allow Chris to study geopolymer durability with Professor John Provis at University of Melbourne.
EAPSI is a flagship international fellowship program for developing the next generation of globally-engaged scienctists and engineers in Asia and the Pacific region. To date, seven (7) locations including Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan have partnered with NSF to host U.S. graduate students in science and engineering. Awardees carry out an 8-10 week research project at host laboratories and cultivate personal relationships with their foreign counterparts.
AAS co-sponsors the EAPSI program in Australia, coordinates orientation, and helps participants with their relocation. The host institutions provide students with office accommodation, access to laboratory, library and computing facilities, access to major equipment and special apparatus, as well as technical assistance and the time and expertise of the host researcher.
Dr. John Provis will serve as Chris' official host. Provis's research is based around the development of mathematical and conceptual descriptions of various aspects of the process of formation of geopolymers. He is a member of the University of Melbourne Energy Institute (MEI) Coal research group and currently serves as a senior research fellow at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Melbourne.
The EAPSI program in Australia begins in Canberra on June 14, 2011.
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