Thanksgiving in Turkey: Dr. Schroeder’s Year Long Fellowship By Tony Moraes A project fifteen years in the making, Dr. Paul Schroeder recently spent the past year researching, teaching, and lecturing abroad in Turkey, thanks to funding by TUBITAK, a Turkish program similar to the U.S. National Science Foundation. Initially, Dr. Schroeder traveled to Turkey to study clay and kaolin deposits, collaborating with, Turkish colleague Dr. Omar Ece. After years of studying and submitting grant proposals, Dr. Schroeder and his collaborator were able to open a door to the entire Geology Department in the form of an International Collaborative Agreement (ICA). The Presidents of the University of Georgia and Istanbul Technical University signed an ICA, which allowed several UGA professors to research in Turkey and, reciprocally, Turkish students and faculty to come to Athens, GA. The ICA helped to fund numerous two-week stints for Dr. Schroeder in order to participate in symposia, lectures, and fieldwork, all precedents for what was to come. About ten years later after copious hard work, Dr. Schroeder’s colleague nominated him for a prestigious fellowship offered to only a handful of international scholars annually by TUBITAK. In Turkey, Dr. Schroeder was able to further his research in the clay sciences and help in the development of English skills for many of the Turkish geologists, geophysicists, and economic geologists. Additionally, he taught two graduate classes, published articles related to Kaolin deposits, and entered into a contract with Cambridge University Press to write a book. The book, Clays: The Critical Zone, should be finished by next summer. While lecturing about the critical zone observatory programs, Dr. Schroeder traveled across Turkey not only educating the people but also himself about the rich, diverse culture of the ancient lands. In addition to the yearly fellowship from TUBITAK, Dr. Schroeder and Dr. Milewski worked to obtain additional funding as a follow-up to their previously funded Building Opportunities Out of Science and Technology (BOOST) project, a U.S. State Department-supported program aimed to bring education and technology transfer to colleges in predominately Muslim countries, like Turkey. After his experience in Turkey, Dr. Schroeder hopes to continue collaboration and further research about clay sciences. This includes collaborative research with Dr. Crowe in Russia as well, which is a story for another time. Paul Schroeder giving a CZO talk at Nevsehir University in Turkey, 12 Jan 2015.
