Sanford Receives Fulbright Grant to Study in Thailand

Entomology graduate student Michelle Sanford will be taking her mosquito research to a global level as she received a prestigious grant to study abroad in Thailand.

Sanford is the only Texas A&M student to receive the Fulbright Grant in the 2007-2008 academic year.

Earlier this month Sanford received the grant from the program, which is a U.S. Department of State administered program offering opportunities to Americans wishing to study abroad. 

The grant will allow Sanford to expand her research on the associative learning abilities of mosquitoes and how these learning abilities affect the insects' feeding patterns.

Sanford's research deals mainly with the associative learning abilities of mosquitoes and how they affect the insects' feeding patterns.

While in Thailand, she will be spending 10 months conducting comparative research throughout the area on the learning habits of the Anopheles species, which are native to Thailand.

Sanford hopes that her research in Thailand will also help her with studying other species of mosquitoes. In the future, the research will give scientists a better understanding how mosquitoes transmit diseases such as malaria and West Nile Virus from host to host.

Sanford heard about the program when she met with a group of students from Thailand. The group told her about the program and even gave her contact information to a researcher at the Chiang Mai University near Bangkok.

Sanford's long term goal is to conduct a research program that integrates laboratory and field studies of mosquito behavior and ecology.

"I am really excited about going," she said. "I hope the research helps people to have a better understanding of the ecology of the malaria vectors in Thailand."

Sanford began her doctoral studies under Jeff Tomberlin and Jim Olson in 2005. She is a native of California and received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of California - Riverside.

"I am very proud and happy for her," Professor Dr. Jim Olson said. "This is a much deserved award for her. She is such a bright and young thinking scientist."

"I am extremely excited for Michelle," Tomberlin said. "She has worked very hard since arriving here in the Department, which is demonstrated through her being selected for such a prestigious fellowship. I am sure that she will take full advantage of every opportunity provided to her through this experience.