Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Writer:  Joelle Prine, 706/583-0727, jprine@uga.edu
Contact:  Steve Elliott-Gower, 706/542-6206, segower@uga.edu

Two UGA graduate students awarded Fulbright research scholarships for 2006-2007

Athens, Ga. – University of Georgia graduate students Rebecca Witter, a Ph.D. candidate in ecological and environmental anthropology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, and Bradd Haley, a master’s student in environmental health science, have been awarded Fulbright research scholarships for the 2006-2007 academic year. Witter will travel to Mozambique and Haley will be in Iceland.

The Fulbright scholarship covers international travel costs and living expenses while students are in the foreign countries. Named after Senator J. William Fulbright, the award was established in 1946 to foster the international relationships of the United States through an educational exchange program. Witter and Haley are two of more than 1,200 Fulbrighters to travel overseas during the next academic year.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright program has sent approximately 273,500 scholarship recipients abroad for teaching appointments or for graduate study or advanced research over its 60 years. Selection is based on academic or professional record and demonstrated leadership potential in the chosen fields.
Starting in July, Witter will be conducting year-long dissertation research on the relationship between human mobility, tree management and land claims in newly created Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, a part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. She says more than 6,000 residents may be relocated as the area continues to develop into a peace park where political boundaries are obliterated and free migration of humans and animals is allowed within the protected borders.

“Receiving the Fulbright award is an honor and an opportunity for me,” said Witter, who also received a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant for her research abroad. “The Fulbright program’s commitment to achieving international understanding and empathy through communication is as timely today as it was when the award was first established. I hope I can contribute to that goal, and I look forward to working with South African colleagues.”

Her previous research experience in summers 2003 and 2004 prepared Witter for this project. The Kinston, N.C. native examined resident agroforestry practices in the Mozambican park and was involved in an ethnographic study in the Southern Province of Zambia in southern Africa.

“Rebecca submitted a strong and interesting application,” said Steve Elliott-Gower, UGA’s Fulbright Program advisor. “She is well-qualified to do the proposed research, and her professors in the anthropology department wrote very supportive letters of recommendation. All of this clearly impressed the Fulbright reviewers.”

After her May 2008 graduation, Witter would like to pursue a career in humanitarian rights, focusing on resource rights and historical claims to land. She and her fiancé will continue to live in Mozambique after she finishes her Fulbright exchange.

Haley, originally from Merion, Pa., will be in Reykjavik, beginning in September, focusing his attention on the ecology of bacterial fish pathogens in the marine waters and land-based aquaculture tanks. He also will be taking courses at the University of Iceland.

“It is important for me to have an international perspective in my field of interest as many of the issues that I research are in pandemic stages and need to be studied from a global perspective,” said Haley, who will earn his master’s degree in August. “The Fulbright exchange program will offer me the opportunity to study infectious diseases in a marine ecosystem that is different from my past fieldwork experiences, while exposing me to a new and vibrant culture.”

While at UGA, Haley completed research on weather and climate factors that contribute to the presence and persistence of human pathogens such as Salmonella in fresh and marine waters. He has presented his findings at several professional meetings and won an award for outstanding oral presentation at the southeastern branch meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

“Bradd’s proposed research is very strong,” noted Elliott-Gower. “It is clear and highly practical, and has the potential to make a real impact on Iceland’s fishing industry.”

A member of numerous professional organizations, including the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Haley would like to become a marine microbiology researcher for a federal agency or an academic institution one day.

Witter and Haley are the most recent UGA students to receive Fulbright awards. Sara Pilzer and Mike Lynch, spring 2006 graduates who were UGA Foundation Fellows, were awarded 2006-2007 Fulbright scholarships to teach English in South Korea and Spain, respectively.

For more information on Fulbright international opportunities available to U.S. students, see http://us.fulbrightonline.org/home.html.

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