University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 32, May 22


                  Biologist receives Fulbright award
     
     Gary Laverty of North East, Md., associate professor of
biological sciences, has been awarded a Fulbright grant to
conduct research in Iceland.
     The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and
the United States Information Agency announced the award for
the 1997-98 academic year.
     Laverty will work with Sighvatur Arnason of the faculty
of medicine at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik to
study how chickens and several species of native Icelandic
birds digest high salt-content food. The two biologists will
be investigating the way a high salt-content diet affects
transporter proteins in the intestines that carry nutrients
at the molecular and cellular level.
     Laverty said one goal of the work is to examine the
feasibility of using fish byproducts as a low-cost feed for
chickens in Iceland's rapidly growing poultry industry.
     The Fulbright program is designed to increase mutual
understanding between the people of the United States and
the people of other countries. Students, teachers and
scholars are eligible and are selected on the basis of
academic and professional qualifications, plus their ability
and willingness to share ideas and experiences with people
of diverse cultures.
                                           -Barbara Garrison