Biology professor named Fulbright Alumni Ambassador
St. Olaf College Professor of Biology Anne Walter has been named a Fulbright Alumni Ambassador by the Institute of International Education.
The Fulbright Scholar Program supports more than 800 U.S. faculty and professionals each year to teach or conduct research in 125 countries around the world. To increase the diversity of the scholars who participate in the program, the Institute of International Education launched the Fulbright Alumni Ambassador Program.
Each year, Alumni Ambassadors are selected competitively to present information on their Fulbright experience at campus workshops, academic conferences, and other venues. Over a two-year period, they play an important role in raising the visibility of the Fulbright program.
Walter received a Fulbright scholar grant to spend the 2009-10 academic year as a visiting lecturer in the Zoology Department at Madras Christian College in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
One of the key reasons Walter applied to teach in India is because she is the advisor for St. Olaf College’s Biology in South India program, which each year offers 10 students a chance to work on two independent research projects at several sites in southern India. Research topics range from rural health care and diseases such as leprosy and tuberculosis to wildlife and mountain ecology.
Walter, the Paul and Mildred Hardy Distinguished Professor of Science, joined the St. Olaf faculty in 1994. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Grinnell College, her master’s degree at the University of British Columbia, and her doctorate at Duke University.