Current Grantees

In July 2001, María Ferenczi Gardini (Fulbright, Uruguay) presented her thesis work on the biochemistry of aroma production in apples at the American Society for Horticultural Science 98th Annual Conference and Exposition in Sacramento, California. The conference brings together faculty, researchers, federal and state experiment station representatives, growers and distributors, and others in relevant fields to discuss and disseminate horticultural knowledge and research. Ferenczi is a master’s degree candidate in plant physiology at Michigan State Univ.

Jorge Miguel Gómez (Fulbright, Venezuela) gave a poster presentation entitled “Delivering remote sensing concepts to the classroom using X-band EOS” (with T. Greely, F.E. Muller-Karger, L. Odriozola, and D. Palandro) at the 23rd Annual International EOS/ESD Symposium in Portland, Oregon. Gómez and his colleagues discussed an outreach program they participated in last summer, during which they demonstrated NASA remote sensing tools at an oceanography summer camp. The program was one of the very few that encourage young women in high school to pursue careers in marine science. Gómez is studying for a master’s degree in marine biology at the Univ. of South Florida St. Petersburg.

Mamíferos en la Niebla: Otonga, un Bosque Nublado del Ecuador, a book by Pablo Jarrín Valladares (Fulbright, Ecuador), was published in 2001. The book, which is illustrated with watercolor paintings and line drawings, analyses the mammalian composition of Otonga, a misty forest in the Western Andes of Ecuador. Jarrín describes 61 species of mammals living in the forest and its environs, including each animal’s conservation status, relationship with humans, and measurements. Jarrín is a master’s degree candidate in biology at Boston Univ.

Juan Manuel Madrid (Fulbright, Colombia) is assisting with the programming and electronic design of the Adaptive PMD Compensator. When data is sent at very high speeds, it is susceptible to corruption through polarization-mode dispersion (PMD). The Adaptive PMD Compensator serves to neutralize the effects of PMD. Madrid has been working as a part of a team in the Lightwave Communication Systems Laboratory at the Univ. of Kansas in Lawrence, where he is studying for a doctoral degree in computer science.

At a two-day conference in July of 2001, entitled “Construção da Cidadania: uma saída para a violência,” Mateus Afonso Medeiros (Fulbright, Brazil) gave a talk discussing what he describes as “the apparent dichotomy between fighting crime and upholding human rights.” The themes of the conference were violence and citizenship. Mederios’s paper, “Direitos Humanos e Violência,” was also included in the proceedings of the conference, published in December 2001. Medeiros is conducting short-term research in law at Columbia Univ.

Jesús Reyes López (Fulbright, Mexico) performed with the Univ. of North Texas African Percussion Ensemble at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention held in Nashville, Tennessee, in November 2001. The Ensemble performs music of the Ashanti people of central Africa and the Ewe-speaking people from the coastal region of Ghana, West Africa. Reyes, who played instruments including the gangokui (bi-tonal bell) and the axatse (gourd rattle) during the performance, is pursuing a master’s degree in music at the Univ. of North Texas.

Alumni

In 2001, the agriculture journal Agronomía Mesoamericana published three articles by Costa Rican Renán Agüero Alvarado (Fulbright, Ph.D., 1990, plant protection, Oregon State Univ.): “Los bancos de propágulos de malezas en agroecosistemas: estado del conocimiento y una propuesta metodológica para su estudio” (with L. Acosta), “Efecto de la profundidad del suelo en Rottboellia cochinchinensis (Lour) Clayton en caña de azúcar (Saccharum officinarum L.)” (with R. León), and “Efecto de tipos de labranza sobre la población de malezas en caña de azúcar (Saccharum officinarum L.)” (with R. León). Also in 2001, Agüero was named dean of the Faculty of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the Univ. de Costa Rica.

In 2000, Brazilian Armindo Jorge de Carvalho Bião (Fulbright, M.F.A., 1983, dramatic arts, Univ. of Minnesota, Twin Cities) published two articles on the performing arts in Temas em Contemporaneidade, Imaginário e Teatralidade, entitled “Matrizes Estéticas: o Espetáculo da Bainanidade” and “O Nome da Cena: uma Reflexão sobre Violência e Espetáculo” (with M. Moura). Bião is the head of the doctoral program in performance studies at the Univ. Federal da Bahia and president of Associação Brasileira de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação em Artes Cênicas (ABRACE).

Justicia Indígena en el Ecuador (with J. Trujillo and X. Endara), a book by Ecuadorian Agustín Grijalva Jiménez (Fulbright, M.S., 1998, political science, Univ. of Kansas), was published in 2001 by the Univ. Andina Simón Bolívar (UASB). The book discusses the legal and human rights of the indigenous population of Ecuador. Grijalva serves as a professor of law at UASB.

In 2000, Carlos Hamilton Severino (USAID, M.S., 1988, aquaculture, Auburn Univ.) was promoted to director of the Aquaculture Department of the Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources in the Dominican Republic.

Peruvian Esteban V. Horna Bances (Fulbright, M.S., 1982, microbiology, Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst) was named rector of the Univ. Nacional del Santa (UNS) in Chimbote, Peru, in 1998. In addition to his work at UNS, Horna teaches microbiology to graduate students at the Univ. Nacional de Trujillo.

Bolivian Marina Yurevna Nicolaeva (Fulbright, Ph.D., 1999, rural sociology, Pennsylvania State Univ.) is conducting research for a collaborative project between the Univ. Privada Boliviana (UPB), where she is a professor, and the Population Research Institute at Pennsylvania State Univ. The project is entitled “Family Planning and Fertility in Bolivia: Contraceptive Use, Women’s Status and the Local Development Context.” The team will gather data on reproductive health policy, contraceptive use patterns, and fertility in Bolivia in order to draft a proposal to seek funding for more comprehensive research into these areas at UPB. Nicolaeva hopes that the project will also encourage further collaborations between U.S. researchers and researchers from developing countries.

Mexican Martha Patricia Zarza (Fulbright, M.S., 2001, industrial design, Arizona State Univ.) presented her paper, “Hair Removal Products: Gendered Objects Under the Control of Conventional Conceptions of Femininity and Masculinity,” at two conferences in October 2000: the 5th Congress of the Americas at the Univ. de las Américas–Puebla in Mexico, and ICSID 2001 SEOUL, the biannual conference of the International Council Societies of Industrial Design, in Seoul, Korea. She also presented a poster titled “Women and Design” at edra32 2001, the Environmental Design Research Association’s annual conference, held in July 2001 in Edinburgh, Scotland.