Volodymyr Tarabara, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan State University, has been named a Fulbright Scholar.
Tarabara will use the funding to conduct research on water quality control in the Republic of Georgia.
He will spend five months spread over 2014-2016 in Tbilisi -- the capital and largest city in the Republic of Georgia, which is located on the southeastern edge of Europe.
The host institution is the Agricultural University of Georgia. The project is in cooperation with a team from the Eliava Institute of Bacteriophages, Microbiology and Virology.
Tarabara’s research will focus on the use of bacterial viruses, called bacteriophages, as human virus surrogates in water quality control applications.
“Georgian researchers are considered to be among the best in the world in the science and application of bacteriophages,” he said. “At the same time, the country is in need of modern engineering solutions to ensure microbiological safety of its waters. I hope that my project will lay a foundation for a laboratory that would serve as a regional hub for water treatment research.”
Tarabara’s work can be broadly defined as water-quality engineering. His areas of specialization include membrane separations processes and materials science of synthetic membranes.
The highly coveted Fulbright grants are issued by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, to foster international academic exchange.
It is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Each year, about 1,200 U.S. scholars study in 155 countries.