Virginia Tech professor receives Fulbright Scholar Award

Brian Robert Murphy of New Castle, Va., professor of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences in the College of Natural Resources at Virginia Tech, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara in Mexico during the 2003-04 academic year. Murphy will present special lectures in natural resource conservation and professional development, and initiate joint research projects with counterpart Mexican faculty.

At Virginia Tech, Murphy studies and teaches natural resource education, fisheries management, reservoir ecology, and international conservation. He was president-elect of the National Association of University Fish and Wildlife Programs from 1999-2001 and was named Fellow in the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists in 1994. He also received the Virginia Tech Certificate of Teaching Excellence in 1998 and the Excellence in Education Award from the American Fisheries Society in 1994. Murphy received his bachelor's degree from the University of Detroit, a master's degree from Purdue University and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech.

Murphy is among the approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad to some 140 countries during the current academic year through the Fulbright Scholar Program. Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and because they have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential in their fields.

Established in 1946, The Fulbright program is America's flagship international education exchange activity and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs. Since the program was established, thousands of U.S. faculty and professionals have studied, taught or conducted research abroad, and thousands of their counterparts from other countries have engaged n similar activities in the United States.

The College of Natural Resources at Virginia Tech consistently ranks among the top five programs of its kind in the nation. Faculty members stress both the technical and human elements of natural resources and instill in students a sense of stewardship and land-use ethics. Areas of studies include environmental resource management, fisheries and wildlife sciences, forestry, geospatial and environmental analysis, natural resource recreation, urban forestry, wood science and forest products, geography, and international development.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become the largest university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top 30 research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 170 academic degree programs.