Text by Juliana Teixeira
The year 2019 started with very special news: I got the Fulbright doctoral fellowship award to spend one academic year as a researcher at a North American University! It was great news, but at that time, I could never imagine how great this opportunity could be. Once you are a young scientist, especially in countries where inequalities rule, to have an opportunity like this is even more special.
I spent an academic year at The University of Oklahoma (OU), being advised by Prof. Dr. Lara Souza. My academic year started with the best thing I could ever imagine, a fieldwork expedition. My first day in the USA I spent discovering a new grassland type, the Mixed Prairie. During that day I could learn a lot about new plants, new tools, and Dr. Souza’s lab student could explain some details of her research. At Dr. Souza’s lab, the grad and undergrad students are involved with a long-term Drought-Net experiment. These experiments were new to me. Before that, I just have read about them, and watch some seminars at conferences. Dr. Souza and her team gave me a great opportunity to learn about it. Furthermore, Dr. Souza allowed me to meet Dr. Blair and the long-term fire experiment from Konza Prairie LTRE- Kansas State University. I was introduced to a beautiful Tallgrass Prairie, Bisson, and an awesome experiment about fire management. Also, Dr. Blair, Dr. Souza, and I could share and discuss findings and ecosystem ecology from Prairies and the Cerrado. It was awesome!
Going back to my academic routine at the OU, I could meet and discuss Science with such amazing scientists in different career stages. I could access all the tools they have to improve my work and my basic scientific knowledge and skills. Also, I could attend great seminars and lab meetings that helped me to improve not just my research project but also the LEVeg work and the research program I’m currently affiliated in my home country.
Besides the awesome and unique experience at Dr. Lara’s lab at the OU, I could also attend two international conferences. One was the International Fire Ecology and the other one was the Fulbright Enrichment Seminar. At the International Fire Ecology conference, I gave an oral presentation to talk about the relation of fire on the function of open savannas of the Cerrado. Furthermore, at both conferences, having such great talks with people all over the world, I could not just learn and share knowledge, but also expand my cultural view of how Ecology, especially how fire and grassland ecology is underestimated and deeply linked with our native heritage. Besides that, it was a great opportunity to meet for the first time the great Saguaro desert and the Great Salt Lake landscape!
Such a great year I spent being a Fulbright fellow! Special thanks to Fulbright Program, Fulbright Brazil Commission, and Dr. Souza and her lab at the University of Oklahoma! Thank you so much!
If you want to apply for the awesome award check it out at https://fulbright.org.br/, for Brazilians; and https://foreign.fulbrightonline.org/ if you are not a Brazilian.
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