Summer Travel Grant 2017 Recipient
Ngan Vo Thi Bich
ADB-JSP Fellow
I am so grateful to receive the 2017 EWCA Summer Travel Grant to participate in the Japan-American Student Conference 69th (JASC) which was conducted in Japan this past August. I just finished this intense but amazing trip in which I learned a lot about Japan and gained new perspectives about the crucial relationship between Japan and America.
Summer Travel Grant 2017 Recipient
Imelda
Student Affiliate
I am a PhD candidate in Economics who works on cleaner energy access in developing countries. I presented my job market paper at the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) Annual Meeting in Chicago, July 30-August 1, 2017. More than 1,000 people attended this conference, as it is one of the largest annual meetings for economists who work in the field of agriculture and applied economics.
Summer Travel Grant 2017 Recipient
Kathleen Tatem
Student Affiliate
During my intensive two-week graduate course on accelerator physics, I completed eight homework assignments, wrote two exams, and experimented with simulation software used to design and operate particle accelerators. An accelerator physicist from Stanford National Accelerator Laboratory taught the course, with a guest lecturer from Los Alamos National Laboratory. The course provided an advanced overview of how different particle accelerators operate, how to describe beam focusing magnets using the mathematics of geometrical optics, causes of beam instabilities, and beam dynamics. University of Hawaii professor John Madey, who passed away last July, was mentioned on the first day of class for his invention of the free electron laser, an influential contribution to accelerator physics. The director of the US Particle Accelerator School introduced me via email to leading experts in the field who might be able to act as my physics mentor for my dissertation, since University of Hawaii will not be hiring a replacement for John Madey.
Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist and EWC Alumnus Nicholas Kristof writes in a recent article on the importance of taking time to connect with people rather than just visiting places while traveling. He also shares personal tips on places to explore in China and India.
“This is my theory of travel,” notes Kristof notes on his Facebook page. “The most important tourist sights in any country are its people, so get to know them. Click here to read his article: “Where to Go to Understand the World in 2012”
EWC Alumnus Nicholas Kristof
By Jean E. Rolles
(Ed. Note: After the EWC’s recent alumni conference in Bali several members of the Center community experienced unanticipated travel adventures as a result of the protests at the Bangkok airport. EWC Board of Governors member Jean Rolles posted this account of her overland exploits on the website of Outrigger Enterprises, where she is Vice President of Community Affairs, and gave permission for it to be reprinted here.)
I recently traveled to Bali, Indonesia, to attend a five-day meeting of the East-West Center Board of Governors, and afterwards, some of the attendees and I traveled to Laos for a quick look at that beautiful country. I had carefully planned to leave the group two days early (November 24) so I could enjoy Thanksgiving with my family in Honolulu. All my good plans went for naught, however, as I got caught in the Bangkok airport mess and was stranded for five extra days, trying every which way to leave Thailand and get home.
My adventure began when I arrived at the Bangkok airport about 1 a.m. from Laos; it was only supposed to be a transfer point so I could catch a Japan Airlines flight to Tokyo and on to Honolulu. Instead, I found a wild airport scene of five thousand people dressed in yellow T-shirts screaming and chanting. (The disturbance, I soon found out, was a chaotic anti-government protest that wound up keeping the airport shut down for about 10 days, with full operations delayed several days longer!)
Luckily, I was in the foreign arrival section, so it was closed-off and secure. I was told to grab my bag and run through the back parking lot to the Novotel Hotel, where I would be safe. I took a room and got four hours of sleep and then got up, dressed, repacked, and was ready to go at 6 a.m. for my flight. However, you could not get any information from the airport or the airlines as to whether flights were leaving as scheduled. The front desk told me not to go to the airport because it was not safe, as there had been some shootings, leaving four killed and 25 injured. We were literally locked in the hotel with private guards outside. The only news I could receive about the airport situation was from CNN!
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