POTSDAM -- Two professors from Clarkson University and Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania, have established an exchange program between the two universities.

Costel C. Darie, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biomolecular Science at Clarkson, and Marius Mihasan, associate professor in the Department of Biology at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania, established an exchange of graduate students and faculty through the Erasmus+ program.

Two chemistry and biology graduate students and two faculty members from the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania, will complete up to five months of research and training at Clarkson. Likewise, two chemistry and biology graduate students and two faculty members from Clarkson will go to Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi for research and training.

This exchange will be fully supported by Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi through Erasmus+.

The agreement between the two universities was supported and then facilitated by two key people: Kathryn Johnson, the vice president for international relations at Clarkson, and Gina Marinescu, a member of the Department of International Relations and contact for Erasmus+ exchanges with U.S. partner universities at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania.

Erasmus+ is the European Union's program to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe and abroad. It provides opportunities for more than 4 million students and faculty members to study, train, gain experience and volunteer abroad.

Darie, currently on sabbatical leave in Timisoara, Romania, specifically traveled to his alma mater in Iasi to meet Marinescu and solidify the exchange agreement. Shortly after that, the agreement was signed.

"The first exchange visitors will be at Clarkson soon," said Mihasan, who is currently a Fulbright Fellow in Darie's lab at Clarkson. "Our current and future collaboration will clearly benefit the members of both Universities. We also plan to expand the scope of the current program and exchange undergraduate students."

Clarkson University educates the leaders of the global economy. One in five alumni already leads as an owner, CEO, VP or equivalent senior executive of a company. With its main campus located in Potsdam, N.Y., and additional graduate program and research facilities in the Capital Region and Beacon, New York, Clarkson is a nationally recognized research university with signature areas of academic excellence and research directed toward the world's pressing issues.

Through more than 50 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, arts, education, sciences and the health professions, the entire learning-living community spans boundaries across disciplines, nations and cultures to build powers of observation, challenge the status quo, and connect discovery and innovation with enterprise.