 A U.S. Army Research Laboratory materials engineer, Dr. Mark Greep, recently returned from a one-year tour of duty working in a South Korean defense laboratory. The DOD's Engineer and Scientist Exchange Program, or ESIP, is an opportunity that promotes international cooperation. And so in that program we have an agreement with about 16 different countries where U.S. Army scientists can go to defense labs in those countries for one year and technically just work entirely for them. Greep, who specializes in nano and bio-nanomaterials, spent the entire year working alongside Korean scientists and engineers at the Agency for Defense Development. So you're not connected back home anymore? You are their employee for one year. You know there's a lot of just little challenges that you figure out as you go. So I'm the first person to go to Korea on an ESIP in about eight or nine years. So there wasn't a lot of people before me that I could get the small tips and advice from. I would say there's a lot of benefits both professionally and personally. I think certainly having something like this on their resume gives them a immense background in, first of all, networking, which I think in this day and age is extremely important and sometimes very hard to do at the same time. The agency is located in central Korea and is known as the Science and Technology Hub for the nation. So at the Agency for Defense Development, it's a little bit more traditional culture I feel than a lot of the other businesses and research labs around Korea. In addition to many universities and industries, the region is home to the majority of the Korean government's research and development facilities. So the project there was really interesting. So I found out when I went in there that it was very difficult for a foreigner to work on a project directly or an ongoing program at ADD. So they gave me the opportunity at the time to kind of wide open prospects, develop a project that I thought was interesting, but they could tie into some of their initiatives that I was able to learn at ADD. GRIP said the Koreans are working on more than 20 nanotechnology research areas such as alternative energy, soldier protection materials, biotechnology and stealth materials. I developed a project to develop nanomaterials towards catalytically active batteries. And so we developed lithium-air batteries, which could be the next generation of energy storage. GRIP said he wanted to experience Korean culture to the fullest. One of my favorite activities there was doing some hiking with the US desk at ADD. And so there's several different courses all around there where you get to go for an hour-long hike, not easy hikes by any means. So I had a hard time keeping up most of the time while I was there. But maybe for an interesting experience, you can go up to the hike, overlook the whole city and then go back down and go back to work. GRIP's wife, who was born in Korea but grew up in the States, used the time to connect with Korean culture through volunteering. And so she found some local orphanages where she could go work with the kids very regularly and just volunteer there and kind of just get out and enjoy the city as well. Serving far from the US military bases in Korea, he soon became immersed in the language, culture and traditions of his new coworkers. The work environment there is very team-oriented. It's about during work, after work, kind of your whole life, it seems kind of revolves around your team and being active with your group. So a typical day at work, the normal work schedule is from 9 o'clock till 6 o'clock at night. But the tradition is there, you try to beat your boss in, so you're trying to get there maybe 8, 8, 30 if you can beat them in. But then you have coffee, you get your day started, and then by 9 o'clock you're starting, you're going on your project. The ESEP program has many applicants each year, but only a handful from across the DOD are chosen. This is a big career decision to make to decide I'm going to stop everything I'm doing now and move myself and maybe my whole family if you have a family overseas. For information on how to apply for an ESEP assignment, ARL researchers should contact the Technology Transfer and Outreach Office. For ARL TV, I'm Joyce Conant.