Associate Prof. Bart Geerts discusses cloud research probes on the wingtip with University of Wyoming graduate students.

University of Wyoming Faculty Member Receives Fulbright Scholar Award

July 31, 2006 - Bart Geerts, associate professor in the University of Wyoming Department of Atmospheric Science, has been awarded a Fulbright Professorship grant to do research at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany during the first half of the 2006-07 academic year.

The United States Department of State and the William J. Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announced that Geerts will collaborate with professors Christoph Kottmeier and Ulrich Corsmeier at the University of Karlsruhe to study the mechanisms of thunderstorm initiation using radar and aircraft.

"This work will be in preparation for a $4 million international field campaign to be conducted in southwest Germany in the summer of 2007," Geerts says.

Fulbright Scholar award recipients are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and demonstrated leadership in their fields.

Geerts has received numerous grants for atmospheric research, sponsored by agencies including NASA, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense. He received degrees in physical geography and engineering irrigation science at Katholieke University in Leuven, Belgium, and earned a Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington.

He is among 700 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad to some 130 countries for the 2006-07 academic year through the Fulbright Scholar program. Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program builds mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries.