Thanks to support from current and former members of the LASPAU Board of Trustees, the Lewis A. Tyler Trustees’ Fund awards up to $500 each to grantees in LASPAU-administered programs whose research encourages the exchange of ideas, staff, or resources between institutions in the United States and Canada and those in Latin America and the Caribbean. Following are the award recipients for 2000 and their funded activities:
In an effort to provide better scientific understanding of the under-researched Andean orchid, Aída Beatriz Alvarez Molina (FUNDACYT, Ecuador, Ph.D., Botany, New York Botanical Garden/City University of New York) catalogued and compared samples found in nature and in Ecuadorian herbariums. Collaborating with the New York Botanical Garden, the Herbario Nacional del Ecuador, and the Jatun Sacha Foundation, Alvarez expanded existing knowledge of Andean plant life. Additional funding for her work was provided by the American Orchid Society.
Marcos Froilán Andrade Flores (Fulbright, Bolivia, M.A., Physics, University of Maryland, College Park) facilitated information transfer between the Meteorology Department at the University of Maryland and the laboratory of atmospheric physics at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in Bolivia by recording atmospheric data on ozone behavior over South America onto CDs. Andrade’s method was more time- and cost-efficient than sending the data over the Internet.
Pablo Benavides Machado (COLCIENCIAS, Colombia, Ph.D., Entomology, Purdue University) is investigating the genetics and population structure of the coffee berry borer, a beetle that feeds on and lays its eggs in coffee beans. Indications that the berry borer’s suspected genetic homogeneity may make the entire species susceptible to one treatment led Purdue University, the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones de Café (CENICAFE), and the United States Department of Agriculture to fund Benavides’ work to help impede the spread of this pest across South America.
Hoping to identify feasible methods for ecologically sustainable land use, including restoration and preservation, Miguel Cifuentes Jara (Fulbright, Costa Rica, M.A., Enviromental Resource Management, North Carolina State University) traveled to Costa Rica to research how differing levels of light intensity affect plant growth in dense foliage areas. Cifuentes worked closely with other scientists from the Department of Forestry at North Carolina State University and La Selva Biological Station of the Organization for Tropical Studies in Costa Rica.
María Luz Gómez-Martínez (Fulbright, Honduras, B.A., Teaching English as a Second Language, St. Michael’s College) developed a new reading curriculum for the intensive English program at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Francisco Morazán, the only institute in Honduras at which teachers can be certified to teach classes in English as a Second Language. Previously, the program only included strong curricula in listening, speaking, and writing.
Expanding on research conducted at the Centro Internacional de Física in Bogotá, Colombia, and at the biology department of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Francisco Javier Martínez Wittinghan (COLCIENCIAS, Colombia, Ph.D., Physiology, State University of New York at Stony Brook) obtained equipment needed to study the membrane structure of the parasite Leishmania amazonenis. The parasite, usually found in tropical regions like the Amazon, has infected over 30 million people worldwide.
Leonardo Miguel Martínez Acchini (Fulbright, Bolivia, M.A., Anthropology, University of Florida) joined a team of researchers from the University of Florida’s Forest Management Trust, who traveled to Bolivia in order to help advance the country’s current process of sustainable forestry. Relying on his prior experience with the Bolivian non-governmental organization BOLFOR, Martínez used his knowledge of regional sociopolitical issues to serve as a liaison between the Bolivian community and the U.S. scientists.
As part of the ongoing Open Classroom Project, a collaboration between the University of Vermont and the Special Education Department of the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Francisco Morazán in Honduras, Karen Alexa O’Reilly Becerra (Fulbright, Honduras, M.A., Special Education, The University of Vermont) and her colleagues hosted two workshops aimed at training local teachers in new teaching strategies. The TREE 2000 (Teachers and Rainforests Educational Exchange) workshops encouraged teachers to use projects involving the Honduran rainforest and its wildlife to help their students develop higher thinking skills and learn to work collaboratively.
Carlos Alberto Rodríguez Meza (FUNDACYT, Ecuador, Ph.D., Plant Physiology, University of Newcastle) traveled to the Riobamba province in Ecuador in search of new species of the streptomycetes genus, used primarily in the production of antibiotics. Rodríguez hopes that sampling from undisturbed habitats will reveal strains of the genus with agriculturally useful applications such as the elimination of root-infecting fungi. He is supported in his efforts by the Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo and the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Science at the University of Newcastle.
Fall 2000/Winter 2001 Informativo Content: Leadership Strengthening Program | New Fulbright Grants for Dominican Citizens | Trustees’ Fund Award Recipients | Cassandra Pyle: An Appreciation | Workshops Provide Learning Opportunities | Financial Leadership Program
| LASPAU Names New Directors
| Grantee News | Calling All Fulbright Alumni | Grantee News | Contents
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