Fulbright Awards to leading NZ Scholars

Fulbright Awards to leading NZ Scholars

Fulbright New Zealand has announced the recipients of four Fulbright New Zealand Senior Scholar Awards for 2007, to leading academics from different fields. The awards, valued at up to US$32,500 plus travel expenses, will allow recipients to pursue research or practical experience in the US for three to five months.

Dr Melanie Anae, Director of the University of Auckland's Centre for Pacific Studies, will undertake research at the University of Hawai'i on first and second-generation Hawai'ian and US-born Samoans, towards a book examining changes in ethnic identity arising from the Samoan diaspora. Dr Anae's research in Hawai'i acknowledges the US as a major force in the process of globalisation.

Dr Penelope Brothers from the University of Auckland's Department of Chemistry will undertake research into the use of porphyrins for hydrogen storage and beryllium sensing in collaboration with scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Her research on hydrogen storage will contribute to LANL's efforts towards developing systems for the use of hydrogen as an alternative, sustainable fuel. Dr Brothers obtained her PhD from Stanford University as a 1979 Fulbright New Zealand Graduate Student.

Dr Matthew Palmer, who recently stepped down as Pro Vice Chancellor and Dean of Victoria University of Wellington's School of Law, will teach a course in Comparative Indigenous People's Rights at the Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut. While at Yale, he will also carry out research as the 2005 New Zealand Law Foundation International Research Fellow towards a book on the place of the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand's constitution.

Dr Philip Sheard from the University of Otago's Department of Physiology will undertake research into brain nerve connectivity at Harvard University's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr Sheard has taken up a year-long Visiting Scholar position at Harvard, where he will collaborate with neurobiologist Professor Jeff Lichtman, whose laboratory's transgenic "brainbow" mice allow visual exploration of neuronal connectivity patterns in live animals.

Fulbright New Zealand's Senior Scholar programme offers a range of awards for New Zealand and American academics, artists and professionals to undertake cultural exchange and gain experience in each other's countries.

ENDS

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