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Texas Tech University Professor, Student Earn Fulbright Scholarships

What do a Texas Tech biology professor and an electrical engineering student have in common? Both are recipients of 2006 Fulbright scholarships.

Research/Academic Showcase

Mary Donahue Mary Jocelyn Donahue is a graduate student in the Department of Electrical Engineering.

Electrical engineering student Mary Donahue and Texas Tech University biochemistry professor Dr. Paul W. Paré are recipients of 2006 Fulbright Scholars Awards.

Donahue, one of 1,000 honored through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, will conduct research at the Technical University of Ilmenau in Germany.

For 11 months, she will study microscopic electro-mechanical sensors for chemical and biomedical applications. Development of such sensors has several applications, including advancements in the medical field with the ability to fight disease on a cellular level, she says.

Donahue will leave in August and spend a month learning German before she begins research in September.

“The ability to create such tiny devices is useful for many reasons,” she says. “The Center for Micro- and Nanotechnologies, where I will work, has various projects to develop these sensors. Developing devices that aid in fighting disease, or at least contributing to the research of this idea, is especially rewarding for me.”

Paré, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, was one of approximately 6,000 international recipients of this year’s Fulbright Scholars Program for U.S. Faculty and Professionals. 

Paul Pare Paul W. Paré is an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

In January 2007, Paré will travel to Brazil to work with a team of scientists from the Brazilian equivalent of the United States Department of Agriculture, called EMBRAPA. They will investigate what role certain bacteria, indigenous to South America, may play in enhancing growth rates of agricultural crops.

“This Fulbright will allow us to explore chemical signaling that occurs between plants and soil microbes with the long-term goal of understanding and augmenting growth for agricultural crops,” Paré says.  “It will also initiate an exchange of ideas and expertise among researchers and students in Brazil and at Texas Tech.”

Researchers from the Paré laboratory, in collaboration with scientists at the Kennedy Space Center and Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., already have identified a blend of odors -- emitted from certain soil bacteria -- that can substantially enhance growth rates. Paré and others want to discover the signals that are transmitted by beneficial bacteria, allowing plants to exhibit larger yields and to grow stronger and faster.



- John Davis



Related Links

The traditional Fulbright Scholar Program sends 800 U.S. faculty and professionals abroad each year. Grantees lecture and conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields.

The Fulbright Program for U.S. Students is the largest U.S. international exchange program offering opportunities for students, scholars, and professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and teaching in elementary and secondary schools worldwide.