The University of Delaware has signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia’s National University of Science and Technology (NUST MISIS) that will provide opportunities for various projects over the next five years. The first planned exchange will be a short study abroad program for UD students during the summer of 2021, with one week on NUST MISIS’ campus in Moscow and one week on its campus 400 miles to the south in the Kursk magnetic anomaly mining region of the country. Students will get to visit one of the world’s largest iron ore mining regions.

That program will satisfy requirements of the Minerals, Materials and Society (MMS) graduate certificate in the College of Earth, Ocean and Environment.

“We are really looking forward to this unique program in the spirit of science diplomacy,” said Saleem Ali, academic director of MMS. “There hasn’t been anything like this before from any American university.”

Senior administrators and faculty from both UD and NUST MISIS met online in late May to introduce their programs and begin to think about other collaborations, such as joint research in fields of mutual interest. Russia has historically held a leading research profile in science and engineering. In addition to work in minerals and mining, another potential area of interest that emerged from the meeting was in materials science. David Martin, a materials science researcher and associate dean for research and entrepreneurship in the College of Engineering, attended the meeting and noted research collaboration opportunities with Russian colleagues.

“We put a lot of time and energy into creating a world-class facility,” for materials science, he said. “We are always looking for people to partner with us and look at new materials in new ways.”