EWU's Jerry Galm named Fulbright Research Scholar

Eastern Washington University is pleased to announce that Dr. Jerry Galm, professor of anthropology, has been named a 2008 Fulbright research scholar. Galm's nine-month appointment in Kazakhstan begins in December 2007 and ends in September 2008.

Galm will be hosted by South Kazakhstan State University, in the city of Chimkent.

He will be working with another Fulbright recipient, Dr. Michelle Glanz, from Colorado State University.

As part of his Fulbright appointment, Galm and his colleague will team-teach within an archaeological field school in the spring 2008 and conduct surveys and testing investigations focusing on Neanderthal sites in the southern region of Kazakhstan. This project will build upon the previous research completed by Glantz that documents human evolutionary history in that country.

The Fulbright award also provides Galm the opportunity to connect with scholars involved in research of the disappearing Aral Sea located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Once the fourth largest lake in the world by area, the fast shrinking Aral Sea has lost more than 50 percent of its surface area and 66 percent of its volume since the 1960s and has become an environmental disaster area.

Galm plans to assist in the mapping of former Aral Sea shorelines using Eastern's GIS lab facilities.

Galm will transmit the data he obtains back to another EWU anthropology professor, Stacy Warren, for the development of student projects linking the former Aral Sea basin shorelines with prehistoric sites located along these shorelines.

The Fulbright Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is the U.S. government's flagship educational exchange program.

Established after World War II as an initiative of Senator J. William Fulbright, the 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, making it one of the largest and most diversified exchange programs in the world. Fulbright grants are awarded through open competitions based on academic excellence and leadership potential.