 |
||||
|
 |
|||
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Fulbright New Zealand has announced the recipients of five Fulbright New Zealand Senior Scholar Awards for 2008, allowing leading academics and artists the opportunity to share and gain knowledge of their respective fields in the United States for up to five months.
The awards, valued at up to US$32,500 plus travel expenses, are a core part of the Fulbright Senior Scholar Programme which facilitates the exchange of around thirty New Zealand and US academics, artists and professionals each year. Dr Cameron Grant from the University of Auckland’s Department of Paediatrics will conduct research into the importance of nutrition to the health of children at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr Grant will develop clinical trials aimed at preventing or reducing the incidence of pneumonia and other infectious diseases in young children by improving their nutrition. While such diseases are more prevalent in developing countries, their incidence in New Zealand is higher than in most other developed countries and striking parallels have been noted between nutritional deficiencies and pneumonia hospitalisations of under two year olds in Auckland.
Dr Sarah Leberman from Massey University’s Department of Management will investigate the roles of women in sports leadership at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in Minneapolis. A specialist in sport management and the sociology of sport, Dr Leberman will undertake in two collaborative projects, one researching gender equity in the decision-making roles of sports organisations, and the other a cross-cultural study of mothers who coach sports. Both will be conducted at the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport, the first and only research centre of its kind in the world.
Susana Lei’ataua from Wellington will take up a position as Artist-in-Residence at New York University’s Asian/Pacific/American Studies Institute, the first Pacific artist invited to do so. Her residency will be spent working on two projects – writing a Pacific Worlds Reader for US students and the general public, and developing a full length theatre work entitled Breaking The Surface which Susana will write, direct and perform in collaboration with New York-based artists. The new work will feature a score composed by Fulbright alumnus Gareth Farr, and will be toured around New Zealand upon Susana’s return from the US.
Dr Phil Lester from Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Biological Sciences will investigate the control of red imported fire ants using pheromones at Texas A&M University in College Station. One of the world’s worst invasive species, red imported fire ants use chemical pheromones to signal the location of food to other ants from their colony. Working with colleagues from Texas A&M and HortResearch New Zealand, Dr Lester aims to develop a method of disrupting the ants’ foraging ability through the use of artificially-produced pheromones.
Dr Stephen May from the University of Waikato’s School of Education will undertake a study of successful school programmes for literacy achievement of minority students. Based first at the University of Arizona in Tuscon and then Columbia University in New York, Dr May’s research will focus on observations of two schools in Arizona’s Navajo Reservation and two Spanish-English dual language schools in New York. He hopes to bring back ideas for improving literacy achievement among Mäori, Pasifika and other bilingual students in New Zealand. ENDS
|
||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
 |
|
|
