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Media Relations
Kansas State University
9 Anderson Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-6415
media@k-state.edu

Information provided by K-State Media Relations, K-State's news service, may be reproduced without permission. The marks and names of Kansas State University are protected trademarks and may not be used in any commercial or private endeavor without the approval of the university.

Source: Michael Herman, 785-532-6741, mherman@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Stephanie Jacques, 785-532-0101, sjacques@k-state.edu

Thursday, April 24, 2008

K-STATE BIOLOGIST GOING TO THE NETHERLANDS AS A FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR

MANHATTAN -- Perhaps World War II journalist Edward R. Murrow described the key to international communication best in his quote, "The really crucial link in the international communication chain is the last three feet, which is bridged by personal contact, one person talking to another."

Michael Herman, associate professor in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University, will have the opportunity to bridge that gap as a J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholar during his trip to the Netherlands in the 2008 fall semester. Fulbright Program scholars, sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, are chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential.

While in the Netherlands, Herman will be collaborating with several scientists throughout the country including his host, Jan Kammenga, associate professor at Wageningen University, to further his research and knowledge in ecological genomics and quantitative genetics. Kammenga is a leader in nematode quantitative genomics.

"I am going to go there to exchange information but also learn something. The idea is to get new research initiated, learn new techniques in Wageningen and then bring aspects of that project back to continue on here," Herman said.

According to the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, K-State has had 24 Fulbright scholars since 1998, while 23 scholars from around the world have come to K-State as visiting Fulbright scholars since 2000.

"I am hugely excited. It is a great opportunity, Herman said. "I have been arranging to do my sabbatical in the Kammenga lab but the challenge is to find funding to help make it possible. There aren’t so many sources to do that. Fulbright is one of them and it is hugely competitive, for the Netherlands they only award two per year."

The Fulbright program, introduced to congress after World War II in 1945 by then freshman Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.

"I think what made my Fulbright application successful is that our Ecological Genomics Institute has already established connection with the research community in the Netherlands," Herman said. The term ecological genomics was coined to describe a way of doing science that examines how environmental changes affect the activation of genes in organisms.

In 2003, Herman and Loretta Johnson, associate professor of biology at K-State, were contacted by scientists in the Netherlands for their input in starting a program similar to the Ecological Genomics Institute at the Division of Biology, a program that Herman and Johnson co-founded. Since that time Herman and several other K-Staters have visited Wageningen University to collaborate and coordinate a graduate student exchange program in the ecological genomics field.

"When considering the interaction of organisms with their environment, we want to identify the genes and gene functions that matter most in a given ecological interaction," Herman said.

Herman received his doctorate in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined K-State in January 1997.