University of Alaska Fairbanks Hosts Foreign Fulbright Scholars

Submitted by Kasey Gillam
Phone: (907) 474-7581
01/27/03

The University of Alaska Fairbanks has been selected to host Fulbright Visiting Scholars Anthony Booth from Grahamstown, South Africa; Olga Butorina from Magadan, Russia; and Helena Storchova from Prague, Czech Republic for the 2002-2003 academic year.

Booth, Butorina, and Storchova are three of approximately 800 outstanding foreign faculty and professionals the Fulbright Scholar Program will bring to the U.S. to teach and conduct research. Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Sen. J. William Fulbright of Ark., the program’s purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and other countries.

Booth, a senior lecturer with the Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Science at Rhodes University, has been appointed to the 2002-2003 Meek Professorship with the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at UAF. He is teaching graduate courses in fish population dynamics and offering a workshop on advanced computer applications. He is also collaborating with fisheries scientist Terry Quinn on an analysis of the walleye pollock population in the Bering Sea.

Butorina, a research associate with the Institute of Biological Problems of the North in Magadan, is currently working with researchers at the University of Alaska Museum and the Institute of Arctic Biology. She is studying the molecular evolution and ecology of birds.

Storchova, a research fellow with the Laboratory of Plant Morphogenesis at the Institute of Experimental Botany in Prague, is working with Matt Olson, an assistant professor of biology and researcher with UAF’s Institute of Arctic Biology. Storchova is studying the genetic structure of plants.

The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international exchange activity, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Over its 56 years of existence, thousands of U.S. faculty and professionals have studied, taught or done research abroad, and thousands of their counterparts from other countries have engaged in similar activities in the U.S. They are among more than 250,000 American and foreign university students, K-12 teachers, and university faculty and professionals who have participated in one of the several Fulbright exchange programs.

Both U.S. and foreign recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and because they have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential in their fields.

UAF had two of its faculty members visiting campuses in other countries as Fulbright Scholars during the 2001-2002 academic year. Laura Milner, professor with the School of Management, taught at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and James Ruppert, professor with the College of Liberal Arts, taught at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg in Germany.

CONTACT: Carla Browning, Public Information Officer at (907) 474-7778.