Professor wins Fulbright grant
Dr. Stephen E. Bialkowski, professor of chemical analysis at Utah State Univeristy, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to research and teach in Slovenia during the 2005-2006 academic year.
The Fulbright Scholar Program sends 800 faculty and professionals from the United States to 140 countries to build mutual understanding between people of the United States and other countries.
Bialkowski was given the award for his work with photothermal spectroscopy – the study of heat emitted from white light bouncing off different chemical substances. He described it as the colors people see everyday, except instead of seeing different colors, they study different temperatures of heat.
Bialkowski has been researching photothermal spectroscopy for 25 years and in January he will travel to Nova Gorica Politehnika in Slovenia to spend six months continuing this research with colleague Mladen Franko.
Their research will consist of finding a more inexpensive way to test for traces of organophosphate pesticide in humans. Organophosphate pesticides, which are sprayed by crop dusters for agricultural use, are closely related to nerve gas and are harmful to humans because they cause problems with their nervous systems. Bialkowski said these pesticides are what caused many of the scares with nuclear weapons in Iraq.
In Slovenia, where Bialkowski is going, organophosphate pesticides are used in the wine vineyards. Currently the cost to test one individual is about $200. Bialkowski hopes to lower this cost to $2 with photothermal spectroscopy testing because villages are much more likely to spend this amount for testing.
“The two dollars for the test can help ensure children are safe. This is like spare change to a big vineyard. It can act as their insurance,” Bialkowski said.
Since exposure to the organophosphate pesticides is treatable, it is important to find a cost-effective way to test people, Bialkowski stated. Because of the expense, few people are tested and treated, and with the lower cost more can be tested and treated.
This past June, Bialkowski was able to travel to Slovenia to meet with other experts on photothermal spectroscopy. He said this fueled his desire to do research in Slovenia and was excited to find that his colleague, Franko, shared many of his same hobbies – with bike riding and wine testing at the top of the list.
Bialkowski said the thing he is most excited about is “the public health aspect and making an inexpensive test for the world.”
He said he hopes this cost-effective test will make it around the world and into the United States where children in Washington’s Yakima Valley have tested positive for pesticides.
-albaugh@cc.usu.edu