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The application process began in August, but for Professor Roberto Lopez-Anido the project started over two years ago.
Lopez-Anido, an associate professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering, has been awarded one of the prestigious Fulbright scholarships. He intends to travel to the University of Chile in Santiago. Lopez-Anido, taking a break from the classes he teaches in structures, mechanics and materials. He will leave for South America in January of next year, just in time to begin their fall semester.
The Fulbright program, an international educational program sponsored by the U.S. Government, awards approximately 4,500 grants annually to graduate students, scholars, professors, teachers and administrators in the United States and internationally. According to its Web site, “The grant is designed to allow its recipients to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.”
Lopez-Anido is one of 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad to 140 countries, according to the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board as cited in a news release.
The application process included a proposal of research and teaching activities, as well as a description of the benefits the grant would bestow upon UMaine and the University of Chile. In addition, Lopez-Anido submitted a curriculum vitae and letters of reference from other professors.
The trip to Chile won’t be the first for Lopez-Anido, a native of Argentina whose first language is Spanish. He has already made two trips to Santiago: The first time he visited was a year and a half ago in order to establish a cooperation between UMaine and the University of Chile; the second trip was to survey some of the marine piers in the area with other professors from its university.
“In my two trips to Chile I found the country to be a good place for the exchange of students and professors,” he said. “It’s a safe place where institutions are well-organized … sometimes when you travel abroad, not everywhere is safe.”
The communication began when Lopez-Anido contacted a research group at the University of Chile, expressing a common interest in wood-plastic composite materials research. In Chile, he explained, they have a need to build stronger marine piers; those currently in place are being attacked by marine borers, more commonly known as shipworms.
“Since Chile has a very important forest products sector, they produce quite a lot of sawdust, and they don’t know what to do with that,” he said. “Here we have the technology at UMaine that can help Chile use a byproduct to produce high performance materials – that is to say ones that are durable, strong, and safe.”
Wood-composite materials, known as WPCs, are manufactured by a mixture of sawdust and plastic, he said. By developing new piers made using WPCs, engineers would make the piers more resistant to attack by the shipworms.
Beyond this research, Lopez-Anido hopes to craft something more meaningful with the Chileans.
“I look forward to developing an international collaboration with the University of Chile that will help both institutions in such a way that students from both universities can travel abroad and professors can work together on research projects that are of mutual interest,” he said.
He encourages students from all disciplines to study in Chile, and vice versa. He said that one student from Chile has started a Ph.D program here and that other students have applied to programs in engineering and wood science and technology.
During his six-month stay he will be accompanied by his wife, Grace, and two of his daughters, Virginia and Rebecca.
“Its going to be a challenge for them … We are going from the small town of Orono to a big city,” he said.
Bangor Daily News