A number of individuals studying a range of scientific and engineering topics have received funding in 2008. All are assessed by our scientific advisors to be of high calibre and worthy of receiving our assistance to help their studies. We have recently contributed funding towards a group who have established a scientific research centre in UlaanBaatar, Mongolia. The aims of the centre closely match those of CFSR, and after consulting our scientific advisor about the individuals involved, we were happy to contribute.

Throughout the last few years we have continued to build the relationship with SESAME and ICTP, two internationally prestigious scientific establishments. We channel funds through each organisation towards high calibre students from countries where funding for scientific endeavours is difficult for individuals to benefit from. ICTP has 5000 Euros of CFSR at their disposal to contribute towards the travel expenses of students for the Diploma Programme on Basic Physics. Recipients of CFSR funding through the ICTP include Dr Fortune Massamba from the University of Botswana. CFSR paid Dr Massamba's airfare so that he could travel to Trieste in 2007. He produced a report on his studies at the ICTP which he shared with CFSR.

In 2006 we awarded a grant to an Iranian PhD student of Radiation Medicine Engineering from Shahid Behesti Radiation Medicine Engineering Department to visit ESMP2006 course in medical engineering and radiotherapy. Attendance at the course helped the student complete his MSC in Radiation Medicine.

 

Eugenia M. del Pino Veintimilla, from the department of Biological Sciences at the Pontificia Catholic University of Ecuador in Quito was awarded a travel grant to attend the TWAS 16th General Meeting in Alexandria, Egypt from 29 November to 3 December 2005. Prof Veintimilla delivered a lecture on the Strategies and Development of Marsupial and Dendrobatid frogs.

The CFSR awarded a travel grant to Dr M. Javed Aktar of PINSTECH Pakistan to allow him to visit a visit to Amman, Jordan in December 2005 to attend the 4th SESAME Users Meeting. Dr Aktar provided the following feedback on his trip:

'For this visit, the travel expenses were paid by the Canon Foundation for Scientific Research, UK. This meeting was highly useful; it provided an opportunity to interact with other scientists working in this field. I have also presented my paper on 'X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS) spectroscopic studies of La1-xCaxMnO3'. Theses materials are prepared at PINSTECH and data has been collected at the SIS Daresbury Laboratory, UK. During this meeting a visit was arranged by the organizers to the SESAME site, which is under construction and is expected to be completed by the end of 2009. During this meeting different directors of SESAME Council presented the progress made to build beam lines and informed about others' activities around the SESAME. Since Pakistan is a member state of SESAME, therefore in light of this visit we can make better scientific programmes for our future scientific research'.