Three May 2010 graduates of UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health have received Fulbright public health scholarships, the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board have announced.  They are Jacqueline S. Knee, MSPH, and Bachelor of Science in Public Health graduates Melissa Asmar and Erin Shigekawa.

 

Asmar, Knee and Shigekawa join more than 1,500 U.S. citizens who will travel abroad for the 2010-2011 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and people of other countries.

 

Knee, whose master's degree is in environmental sciences and engineering, will work in Thailand during her Fulbright year.

 

A high percentage of rural Thai people rely on harvested rainwater as their only source of drinking water, she said. In some areas of Thailand rainwater must be stored and used for months before collection can occur again.

 

"I will be examining the physical and sanitary conditions of rainwater harvesting systems, the microbial quality of the stored water, and determining the efficacy of chitosan (a derivative of the exoskeletons of certain shellfish) as a point-of-use water treatment option," Knee described.

 

"My time in the environmental sciences and engineering department, specifically in Dr. Mark Sobsey's laboratory, provided me with both the knowledge and skills necessary to design and undertake such a project, as well as an understanding of how important it is that we continue to strive towards providing clean, safe water to communities worldwide," she said.

 

Asmar, who studied nutrition, will work in Germany as an English teaching assistant and will conduct research on nutritional change in the traditional German diet due to modernization and immigration.

 

"I'm very excited to be able to actually apply what I learned about nutritional biochemistry and epidemiology to a population I'll soon be a part of, with the added opportunity to improve my German," Asmar said.

 

Health policy and management major Shigekawa will spend 10 months in Taiwan, focusing on chronic kidney disease.

 

Taiwan has the highest incidence and prevalence of end-stage renal disease in the world, with increasing rates of dialysis. The burden of the disease is disproportionately present in low socioeconomic status groups.

 

"For the first five months," Shigekawa said, "I will be with the National Health Research Institutes working on chronic kidney disease (CKD) health disparities. At the moment, I am doing some preliminary literature research on betel quid (a product similar to chewing tobacco that increases cancer risk and is used disproportionately by low-income groups and groups of low educational attainment). Betel quid is also one of the top risk factors for CKD in Taiwan."

 

Shigekawa also will work with public health faculty at National Yang Ming University, near Taipei, where she will focus on chronic kidney disease and Taiwan's National Health Insurance system.

 

Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. Fulbright alumni have achieved distinction in government, science, the arts, business, philanthropy, education and athletics. Forty Fulbright alumni from 11 countries have been awarded the Nobel Prize, and 75 alumni have received Pulitzer Prizes.

 

The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support.

 

The Program operates in more than 155 countries worldwide. Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program has given approximately 300,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists and scientists the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

 

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For further information about the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, please visit http://fulbright.state.gov.

 

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.