STCU News and Announcements
Dr. Michael I. Westphal of the EPA Visits the STCU
82/49428 May 2005
On Monday May 27, 2005 Dr. Michael I. Westphal from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of International Affairs paid a visit to the STCU’s Kyiv Secretariat where he met various members of the STCU’s management and staff. Dr. Westphal was briefed on the STCU’s new initiatives and the sides discussed their various joint projects in Ukraine. An assistance agreement between the STCU and the EPA (5 years duration, first period cost $630,000) was signed in October 2003. As a continuation of the STCU’s Partnership Program and collaboration in bio chem areas, the STCU organized visits to several Ukrainian institutions for Dr. Michael I. Westphal from May 24-27, 2005. Dr. Westphal was accompanied by STCU Senior Specialist Dr. Iryna Tomashevska.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been involved in the US State Department’s Bio Chem Redirect Program (BCR) since 1999. EPA’s initial non-proliferation activities in NIS countries were centered on Kazakhstan. More recently, EPA activities in NIS countries have expanded geographically to include new projects in Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The projects funded within the EPA’s mission are to strive for clean air, clean water, and the management of toxics with the realization that many environmental problems have a transboundary element. It is expected that ultimately the EPA’s involvement in BCR projects in the NIS should accrue benefits to the Agency in terms of gathering data on environmental problems and their amelioration, though that is a desired ancillary outcome. The EPA BCR projects will most likely fall into several core disciplinary areas (not exclusive):
• Environmental monitoring and modeling of pollutants
• Environmental technology and remediation
• Toxicology, particularly computational
• Ecology, particularly molecular-related or modeling
• ‘Green’ chemistry, i.e. more environmentally benign chemical processes
• Environmental quality (particularly water) and disease
• Rapid response/Homeland security/antibioterrorism technologies
• Environment and agriculture, e.g. effects of transgenic crops, pesticides and ecological health
The following institutions in Kyiv were involved in this event:
• Institute of Organic chemistry
• Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry and Petrochemistry
• Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics
• Palladin Institute of Biochemistry
• Zabolotny Institute of Microbiology and Virology
• Institute of Agroecology and Biotechnology
• National Agrarian University
• Institute of Cell Biology and Genetic Engineering
• Bogomolets Institute of Physiology