Dedicated to encouraging knowledge transfer, Young Scientist Ambassador Program (YSAP) fosters GYA members to serve as scientific ambassadors between developed and developing countries. The latest activity led Ghada Bassioni (Egypt) to the Netherlands, where she conducted an outreach activity to Dutch 8th-graders from an Islamic elementary school “Al Unmah” from Enschede and the elementary school “Stichting Proo” from Nunspeet together with Wilfred van der Wiel (The Netherlands).
The two EC-members, who also currently collaborate supported by the GYA interdisciplinary grant, introduced the children to their areas of research – Chemistry and Nanotechnology – for example by scientifically demystifying the curse of the pharaoh as well as showing or conducting experiments together with the children in a laboratory of the University of Twente.
With these activities they wanted to make children curious in research and make them aware of the possibilities of a career in science. “The opportunity to teach and work with students and to develop new educational techniques is my primary reason for seeking an academic career. I strongly believe in the importance of education in a society, and teaching has provided me with my most rewarding professional experiences. The knowledge we accumulate as researchers and practitioners is valuable only if it is shared”says Ghada Bassioni.
The local newspaper De Twentsche Courant Tubantia reported about the YSAP activity as well, which can be found here.
The full mission report of this YSAP funded exchange can be found here.