Sixteen students have been selected to participate in the 2011 SciFinder Academic Exchange Program (SAEP); among the 16 is an Indian—Subha B., who is currently completing her second year of PhD (under Dr. Anokona Datta, on designing molecular sensor for imaging metal ions) in chemical biology at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.

In August, these 16 PhD students will travel to Columbus, Ohio, to meet with Chemical Abstract Services (CAS) senior management, editorial scientists, and technical specialists and exchange ideas about key issues pertaining to their research. The students will discuss how CAS functions and how to improve it.

Ms. Subha and her colleagues will also attend the 242nd American Chemical Society (ACS) Annual Meeting and Exposition in Denver, Colorado. Students also get the opportunity to tour local research organizations such as Battelle Memorial Institute, the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Centre, TechColumbus, and other local research organizations. The program also offers a stipend of $1,000.

Ms. Subha uses SciFinder, a leading research tool for chemists and researchers that provides the essential content and proven results that scientists need to increase productivity and make faster breakthroughs and offers instant access to the most comprehensive collection of chemical substance and reaction information. For being considered for the exchange program the applicants had to submit an essay illustrating the advantages and disadvantages of the chemical informatic tools in the search engine. Subha wrote a two-page-long essay where she compared few of the search engines that are out there. “Research scholars get lost over some technical terms; so I proposed introducing a dictionary as part of the database which will provide the meaning for some basic terms. I also suggested putting links to YouTube videos that explain basic chemical and biological processes,” she says.