Fulbright takes global health scholar to Suriname
Brad Hawkins, a doctoral candidate in global environmental health sciences, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture at the University of Suriname's public health program during the 2012-2013 academic year.
After he receives his PhD this summer, Brad Hawkins will help build an environmental public health education and research base in the country in northern South America. (Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano)
The Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine helped establish the master of public health program at the University of Suriname in 2010.
Hawkins, who will receive his doctoral degree in environmental health sciences this summer, will help the University of Suriname develop an environmental health sciences track. Current Tulane public health faculty members lecture there via a high-tech, multi-function access grid, which allows for real-time, interactive, multimedia teleconferencing.
In addition to his teaching duties, Hawkins will work with the university to prepare the master of public health program for accreditation, while continuing his collaborative research on mercury exposures resulting from subsistence fishing in gold-mining areas.
Maureen Lichtveld, Freeport McMoRan Chair of Environmental Policy, who served as Hawkins' adviser, says, “This year-long fellowship will allow Brad, the department and our school to build on our collaborative research and education successes in global environmental health sciences.”
According to Lichtveld, who is a native of Suriname, Hawkins will be the first Fulbright fellow at the University of Suriname.
Hawkins said he is “very honored for the privilege to represent Tulane University as a Fulbright Scholar to Suriname, and look forward to sharing the skill sets and experiences gained from my studies here at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine with the faculty and students at Anton de Kom University.”
He is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program in 2012-2013.
Dee Boling is director of communications for the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
