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Johannes Nitsche characterizes his Fulbright experience as one that opened his eyes, figuratively and literally.
The people in Vladivostok, Russia knew he was a foreigner before he ever spoke. Even a two-year-old boy on the street pointed at the American and told his mother, “Look, look.” Nitsche learned later from friends that it was because he was always wide-eyed, looking around like a child in awe.
The professor of chemical engineering at the University of Buffalo says the same was true of his research. He had been thinking about a particular problem for about a decade but was unable to come to grips with it until he got to the Far Eastern State Technical University in Vladivostok. “It was as if something was jarred loose, and my eyes suddenly opened,” he says. “Working with Victoria Yarushina, an expert with an entirely different yet open and complementary scientific perspective, was the key to finding the answer.”
Nitsche’s research involves what is known as the continuous-body problem. He explains that understanding how molecules are transported from one place to another is vital to almost every aspect of life, from the functioning of human cells within the body to the process of separating petroleum fractions at an oil refinery. The computer simulation models currently used for describing molecular movement look like necklaces, or individual beads connected by rods or springs. These models work well for describing linear molecules; however, they cannot describe more voluminous molecules that bend and stretch.
“Picture a jumble of string, for example,” Nitsche says. “It is entangled, and it is tough, but it still bends.” Once developed, the model will be able to be applied to a number of areas, including drug delivery to human cells.
By the end of the grant period, Nitsche and his host had made significant progress in solving the problem. “It can’t be completed in three months,” he says. “But we are both doing our homework, and we keep in contact. I hope to go back, and in another year or so, we will finish our paper.”
Nitsche is incorporating his findings into a heat and mass transfer course he teaches at Buffalo, and he says that his teaching style has changed some since witnessing the Russian educational system. “I saw students there do complex calculations on paper that students in America often rely on the computer to do,” he says. “It humbled and inspired me. This past semester I’ve covered a lot more material in my classes than before,” he adds.
As an unofficial cultural ambassador, Nitsche felt it was important for him to let people there know that Americans respect other cultures. While there, he tried to speak Russian as often as possible instead of English. “Bringing people together for a common purpose, as the Fulbright grants do, leads to a deeper understanding and appreciation of vastly different cultures,” he says. “I can’t imagine animosity finding any fertile ground if we continue such exchanges.”
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"International education
exchange is the most significant current project
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mankind to the point, we would hope, that
nations can learn to live in peace"
--J. William Fulbright |
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