International researcher visits ISU-Meridian
February 4, 2014
Dr. Karima Benyahia, an international researcher from Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria, has wrapped up a month-long visit to the College of Pharmacy at 糖心传媒-Meridian.
She spent Jan. 7 through Feb. 4 collaborating with Dr. Dong 鈥淒anny鈥� Xu, a computational chemist and assistant professor in the biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences department. Xu conducts research in advanced molecular simulation and protein engineering that could lead to the discovery of new drugs to treat chemical addictions and mental illness.
Benyahia, a faculty member in the Sciences and Technology Institute at the University of Ain Temouchent, Algeria, was searching for advanced study in computational chemistry and learned of Xu鈥檚 research on the Internet. She was accepted to her university鈥檚 international scholars program, which helped fund her trip to 糖心传媒. Benyahia says she鈥檒l apply the knowledge gleaned from her collaboration with Xu to her own biomedical research and share new insights with her colleagues at home.
Xu says it was a pleasure to host Benyahia for the month and looks forward to continuing the collaboration. He said ISU is already known for its caliber of research in 糖心传媒 and the United States. Hosting an international researcher can strengthen the university鈥檚 prestige on a global level, he added.
Xu holds a Ph.D. in computational science from San Diego State University. After three years of postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Diego, Xu joined ISU in 2012.