Supported by the Division of International Program (INT) of the National Science Foundation (NSF), three physics students from Illinois State University (ISU), Benjemin Thompson, a senior, Tim Hughes and Gabriel Altay, both juniors, joined Dr. Shang-Fen Ren, a Professor of Physics at Illinois State University, for a four-week summer research experience in Beijing, China in the summer of 2001. Their hostin China was the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Science. These three ISU students joined three Chinese research groups in China. Ben joined the Raman Spectroscopy Lab of Profs. Guohua li and Hexiang Han's group and worked together with their graduate student Zaili Fang; Tim joined the Infrared Spectroscopy lab of Prof. Desheng Jiang and worked closely with his graduate student Xiaodan Liang; Gabriel joined the Time-resolved Spectroscopy Lab of Prof. Zhongyin Xu and worked with his graduate student Xiangdong Luo. All the students also worked with others professors and students some time. All ISU students had great research experience in these labs.

In addition to working in labs, the Chinese host arranged a series lab tours and lectures by their scientists for ISU students. The students also attended an International Workshop on Nanostructures at Tsinghua University and visited the Department of Physics at Peking University while in Beijing.

Since Ben is a Physics education major, he was arranged to visit the Beijing Experiment School, one of the best middle and high schools in Beijing. He visited the students' lab on verification of the physical law of ideal gas. He met with the instructor and students while they were working in the lab and had some intersteing discussions with them.

The three ISU students stayed at the Beilin Hotel which is within a walking distance to the Semiconductor Institute. After work, they played basketball with Chinese students on Mondays and Wednesdays, walked around the streets, and explored the Chinese culture and and made friends by themselves. The three ISU students also had excellent opportunities for sightseeing over the weekends. They visited the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Summer Places, the Temple of Heaven, etc., while in Beijing (click here for more information on the students' culture experience).

This summer experience has provided ISU students an exceptional research and cultural experience that they will never be able to gain at ISU. For participating students, this was their first experience of going abroad and visiting such leading edge research institutions. All three ISU students made excellent progress on their on-going research projects which they started at ISU and will continue after they come back. The international experience gained by students in the early stage of their career has broaden the students' perspective on and prepare them for their future participation in a more globally-oriented workforce. It will better prepare the students to take leading roles in academia, industry and the government of the next generation. We believe that this experience will benefit greatly both the students and the United States in a long term.