Dongming Mei, Director, CUBED/Professor Physics at the University of South Dakota shares with Traci what the PIRE program is and his focus on nuclear research and dark matter as a multi-country collaboration. He further elaborates on the National Science Foundation’s interest in this research and how USD received a $4.35 million grant from NSF to help advance germanium materials for developing detectors and other technologies in the study of dark matter and neutrinos as a multi-country collaboration and global community effort. Dongming explains the positive outcome of nuclear research and the uses that nuclear matter can have that extend beyond our political understanding or fears.