International students share ideas in Rutgers research lab and create lasting friendships
Four international graduate students spending the summer at Rutgers hope someday to be able to develop revolutionary medical devices and therapies that will help an injured body regenerate tissue that has been damaged by disease, injury or age.
By day, Joseph Goding from Australia, Valentina Cirillo from Italy, Agnieszka Telecka from Poland and Jen Fong Kong from Singapore are in the laboratory on the Busch Campus working on the research projects which brought them to Rutgers. But by night, and on the weekends, these international visitors all agree that having the opportunity to be part of an exchange program that is also giving them a look at life in the United States is part of the reason they wanted to be selected.
“This program brings students from different parts of the world together to share ideas and learn new things in a totally new laboratory,” said Jen Fong Kong of Singapore, a doctoral student who is studying the potential capabilities of biodegradable polymers as substitutes for prosthetic implants. “For a person who has never been to the U.S., this program is a wonderful place for us to work and play.”
Joachim Kohn, director of the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials and a Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the School of Arts and Sciences, says while this three-month program gives young scientists the opportunity to enhance their research, creating friendships and long-lasting relationships as a result of short-term international exchange programs, such as the one here at Rutgers, is just as important.
“We look at these students as being ambassadors of good will,” said Kohn. ”Science is globalized and these students are already out there competing, looking to see what others throughout the world are doing. This program allows them to get the information they need and, at the same time, meeting new people and visiting a new country gives them a better understanding of the importance of cross-cultural experiences.”
Strangers before meeting in May when they began the program, the academic foursome has spent most of their spare time on the weekends together. They have been to New York on numerous occasions, strolling along Fifth Avenue, walking through Central Park, visiting the Statue of Liberty, the Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They watched fireworks in Philadelphia by the Liberty Bell and spent time at the Jersey Shore.
“I wanted to come to the U.S. to develop my skills in biomaterials,” said Telecka of Poland who is researching the regeneration of bone.” But I also wanted to get an experience, to visit this beautiful country because I think that a chance like this won’t repeat itself in the nearest future.”
The program is partially funded by retired Johnson & Johnson executive Salvatore Romano, his daughter-in-law Miranda, a J&J employee, and a matching grant from the pharmaceutical company.
Romano, a Rutgers alumnus who also taught chemistry at Rutgers as an associate research professor, says the International College of Fellows program offers students the opportunity to be mentored by leading scientists in the field of biomaterial research and facilitates the internationalism of biomaterials science education. Someday, he said, these students could be the leaders in biomedical research science.
“The New Jersey Center for Biomaterials laboratory at Rutgers is such a unique research environment that those of us who have been working in the private sector for years want to come back to Rutgers and be and be a part of the research taking place here,” Romano said. “It is an invaluable experience for these students.”