Dr. David Barker, Professor in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science (HCS), welcomed on November 9, 2015, Dr. Elly Nyambobo Sabiiti, a recipient of the U.S. State Department’s distinguished Fulbright Fellowship. Dr. Sabiiti is a professor emeritus and former Dean of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. He specializes in pasture agronomy and seed science technology, and serves as a distinguished fellow for the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), and Uganda’s National Academy of Sciences (UNAS).
During his 3 months here at The Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, Dr. Sabiiti will work closely with Dr. Barker in composing a technical manuscript, as well as observing other departmental activities related to agricultural teaching and research.
“With Dr. Sabiiti being here as a Fulbright Scholar, we’ll be working on revisions to our undergraduate curriculum,” says Dr. Barker, who is also engaged in several other international activities including international student advising and joint research. “Dr. Sabiiti plans to develop two undergraduate courses in forage agronomy that he’ll deliver to his home institution, while I’ll be working on adding curriculum related to international agronomy to Ohio State courses.”
This is not the first time Dr. Sabiiti has visited Ohio State’s campus; he last visited in the late 1980's. In fact, he has worked collaboratively with faculty in HCS, as well as Dr. Mark Erbaugh, Director of the Office of International Programs in Agriculture, for almost 30 years now mostly in the areas of collaborative agricultural research in East Africa.
Dr. Sabiiti will also participate in a number of other Fulbright-sponsored cultural events during his fellowship, including traveling to San Diego for the African Studies Association (ASA) meeting as well as to Austin, Texas for the Fulbright Enrichment Program in early December. These venues will allow Dr. Sabiiti to share his research and other fellowship objectives with other international Fulbright recipients and scholars.
Through initiatives like the Fulbright Scholars Program, U.S. faculty and researchers have the opportunity to establish and foster long-term partnerships between their respective institutions in an effort to advance higher education, innovative research, and mutual cultural understandings. Dr. Sabiiti and his collaborators at Ohio State have no doubt that his time here will contribute positively to the long-lasting cooperation that has occurred and will continue to occur between Ohio State and Makerere University.