Palau

Increasing pollution on the islands has brought health effects on marine life, the reef and humans. Poor water quality not only effects humans but the environment that produces essential, nutritious foods. Take one step closer to making the change that Palau needs.

In 2013, Palau became the seventh and most recent location to join the Pacific STEP-UP Program. Mr. Tchuzie Tadao and Dr. Chris Kitalong are Palau’s local program coordinators that can help students with the program. The students who are accepted into the program will work with a trained research mentor at the newly built STEP-UP training lab located in Palau Community College. At the end of the 8-week program, interns will travel to Washington, DC for the annual National STEP-UP Scientific Symposium where they will present their summer research projects to both peers and professionals from academia and the research industry. A participation allowance will be given to interns upon completion of the program.

LOCAL COLLABORATOR

Dr. Patrick Tellei
President
Palau Community College

PROGRAM COORDINATORS

Dr. Christopher Kitalong

Palau Community College

Dr. Christopher U. Kitalong is a Palauan-American resident of Palau that has focused most of his work on the Pharmacology of Palauan traditional plant medicines; work begins with identification of important plant species, then looks at origin and distribution of these plants and culminates in phytochemical, pharmacological and clinical assessment of these plant medicines. Chris received his BS degree in Science-Business from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana; his MS in Pharmacology from Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University in Japan and his PhD in Biology from The Graduate Center, CUNY in New York. He has been assisting with the STEP-UP Program in Palau since 2014.