POTSDAM -- Three Clarkson University professors are preparing to lead classes and conduct research in South Africa, Romania, and Slovenia this fall as recipients of Fulbright Scholar Awards.

They include associate professor in the Institute for a Sustainable Environment Michelle L. Crimi, professor of chemistry and bimolecular science Devon A. Shipp, and associate professor on anthropology Annegret D. Staiger.

The Fulbright Scholar Program is sponsored by the United States Department of State and is designed to promote “mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries of the world,” a news release from Clarkson says.

Crimi will be at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, working with the civil and environmental engineering department. Her award is for a combined teaching/research experience where she will develop a new collaborative course, “Sustainable Industrial Waste Management: Global Challenges and Opportunities,” to be taught simultaneously at Clarkson University and UKZN. The northeastern U.S. and South Africa have many similar industries, she says, but waste is managed differently.

Shipp will be working with leading researchers at the University of Ljubljana and the Slovenian National Institute of Chemistry, studying new hybrid biodegradable polymer materials that have great potential in the medical field, such as for drug delivery and wound healing.

Staiger will be going to Romania on a research and teaching award. She will spend the fall semester at the University of Cluj Napoca, and the spring semester at West University of Timisoara.

“My research will be about how the Romanian state responds to Romanian women who are working in the German sex industry,” she says. “Romanian sex workers constitute one of the largest groups of women who are identified by Germany as victims of human trafficking. An unknown number, however, work independently in Germany’s sex industry, sending back remittances to their home country. Foreign remittances constitute a significant source of income for the Romanian state.”