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UTEP/Stanford "Gateway Program"
In 2000, the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) in partnership with Stanford University created the Gateway Program to develop the untapped resources located in the El Paso, Texas region. The Gateway Program actively engages underprivileged and underdeveloped human talent from the villages and cities of the United States/Mexico border and provides them with the opportunity to do research at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) which is one of the most exciting facilities and scientific environments in the nation thereby significantly modifying diversity in the scientific manpower pool.
 
Myriam Perez, Ph.d 2004 graduateDr. Russell R. Chianelli, MRTI Director
Myriam Perez, Ph.D. 2004 graduate Dr. Russell R. Chianelli, MRTI Director
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The Gateway Program, funded by the Department of Energy, provides support for Mexican-American and Mexican students and supporting faculty to travel to the Stanford Laboratory to work with synchrotron techniques that are powerful tools increasingly used in many scientific fields. The Gateway Program also provides for staff members who train and support the students in their research efforts while teaching them methods of data reduction and analysis, and jointly with SSRL staff scientists, develop collaborative tools for remote access to instrumentation and data measured at the SSRL. Student Publications
 
   
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GATEWAY TIMELINE
Report of the First SSRL/UTEP Gateway Synchrotron Training Run June 13-June23, 2000. Under the new DOE funded SSRL/UTEP Gateway program a contingent of UTEP students and staff underwent training on existing proposals from June 13-June23, 2000. Some students and visiting scientists from Mexico were also included at their own expense. All students with previous synchrotron experience were included under other grants Report to DOE FY 2000 FY2002: Progress in FY2000 and FY2001, Scientific and Educational Gateway This new, joint effort with University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) serves both the Mexican-American and Mexican communities in undergraduate and graduate education by engaging student scholars in science and engineering research programs at all levels. The excitement of the scientific opportunities presented by synchrotron-based research will be used as a strong stimulus to attract and retain these students in science and engineering. Report to DOE FY 2000 FY2002: Progress in FY2000 and FY2001, Scientific and Educational Gateway This new, joint effort with University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) serves both the Mexican-American and Mexican communities in undergraduate and graduate education by engaging student scholars in science and engineering research programs at all levels. The excitement of the scientific opportunities presented by synchrotron-based research will be used as a strong stimulus to attract and retain these students in science and engineering. Progress in FY2003: The level of synchrotron related skills increased substantially for both the students and faculty, which will be reflected by refereed publications and meeting presentations of the group. Particularly skills were improved in the areas of SAXS and carbon edge XANES. Progress was made in six core areas in FY2003. Anticipated Progress in FY2004: It is expected that some of the core projects will be completed and new ones will arise from the seed projects. The Chianelli group will continue to address a number of important areas started in FY2004. New Project: In FY2004 Professor Boguslaw will bring protein crystallography to the Gateway Program. His main research interest is in structural enzymology, i.e. how chemical reactivity is generated in biological macromolecules. Several projects are designed to determine three-dimensional structures of important proteins and study details of their catalytic reactions, especially in metallo-proteins. Several protein crystals have been grown and are ready for study. Expected Progress in FY2005: The Scientific and Educational Gateway scientific support staff by this time will be fully in place, providing the complete infrastructure necessary for this effort. It is anticipated that this program will serve 25 students and 5 faculty during FY2005. Additionally, the first "Gateway PhD" (Myriam Perez) will have graduated and three new gateway PhD students will be well underway in their research programs. In the later part of FY2005 the program will have achieved several major goals. Expected Progress in FY2006: It is expected that FY006 the success of the Gateway Program in achieving its stated goals will be fully recognized in the national and international synchrotron community. The target community will be well represented in the community with 10-15 Ph.D. scientists with extensive beamline experience in all techniques relative to materials science, biology, environmental science, chemistry and engineering represented by the programs outlined above.