From Ethiopia to IUPUI

"Developing the Capacity for Teaching Excellence in Social Work and Social Development in Ethiopia Project" at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis is a partnership among Addis Ababa University, the IU School of Social Work and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Addis Ababa U. is the first school in sub-Saharan Africa to offer a PhD in Social Work and Social Development, reports the IUPUI news bureau.

Abebaw Minaye Gezie (pictured), a university lecturer at Addis Ababa U., is one of this year's participants.

Gezie has a degree in Pedagogical Science and in Educational Psychology and has 12 years of teaching and research experience in education and psychology in various colleges and universities in Ethiopia. He has been a lecturer in Psychology since 2003 at Addis Ababa U., where he is a 2nd year PhD student in Social Work and Social Development.

Gezie will learn more about the art of teaching while at the IU School of Social Work and UIC, and has been selected to become the expert in pedagogy at AAU. By teaching and training other PhD students at Bahir Dar University, Gondar University and Adama University in teaching research and methods, he will contribute to the development of expert pedagogy at three emerging departments of social work.

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Purdue sorghum researcher wins World Food Prize

Gebisa Ejeta (left), Distinguished Professor of Agronomy at Purdue University, was named the recipient of the World Food Prize today for research leading to the increased production and availability of sorghum in his native Africa, reports the Purdue News Bureau.

Ejeta, a plant breeder and geneticist originally from Ethiopia, developed sorghum varieties resistant to drought and Striga, a parasitic weed. Sorghum is a major food crop for more than 500 million people on the African continent.

The World Food Prize is considered the Nobel Prize of agriculture. It is awarded each year by the World Food Prize Foundation to individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food worldwide.

Ejeta is the second Purdue professor to receive the World Food Prize in three years. Philip Nelson, the Scholle Chair Professor in Food Processing and former head of Purdue's Department of Food Science, won the award in 2007 for developing aseptic bulk storage and distribution, a technology for transporting processed fruits and vegetables without product spoilage.

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Justice in Ethiopia and Air Pollution in China

Two Valparaiso University faculty members have been named University Research Professors and will receive support for projects on traditions of restorative justice in Ethiopia and assessing the impact of Chinese air pollution.

Selected by the University's Committee on Creative Work and Research were Dr. Charles Schaefer, associate professor of history, and Dr. Gary Morris, associate professor of physics and astronomy. Each receives a $4,000 grant to support his scholarly work along with one semester of full-time leave or two semesters of half-time leave to focus on his research projects.

Dr. Schaefer will research various methods of restorative justice employed by Ethiopia’s emperor and imperial court to resolve conflict and bring about peace and reconciliation.

Dr. Morris will use his grant and leave to review measurements of air pollution being carried by wind currents from China to Japan.

Dr. Ejeta Named Distinguished Professor

Gebisa Ejeta (left) was named the Distinguished Professor of Agronomy in the Department of Agronomy at Purdue University by the board of trustees 6 July.

Ejeta has been a professor at Purdue, his alma mater, since 1984. His research group focuses on the genetic analysis and breeding of sorghum for resistance to the major biotic and abiotic stresses including drought, plant diseases and the parasitic weed called striga. The research also includes the nutritional quality of sorghum, its potential for use for alternative energy, as well as management and exploitation of genetic resources and influence of gene flow in crop species.

Ejeta earned a bachelor's degree in plant sciences from Alemaya College in Ethiopia in 1973 and master's and doctoral degrees in plant breeding and genetics from Purdue in 1976 and 1978.