Blueberry Expert Klimis-Zacas Named to Senior Fulbright Specialist List
Contact: Dorothy Klimis-Zacas, 581-3124; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — Dorothy Klimis-Zacas, UMaine professor of food science and human nutrition, has been named a Senior Fulbright Specialist, and plans to spend part of a semester-long sabbatical at the University of Milan’s Department of Food Science and Nutrition in Italy studying the health benefits of blueberries.
From April through June, she anticipates presenting lectures and graduate seminars, and assisting the Department of Nutrition with curriculum development and assessment. She also intends to solidify collaborative research opportunities with colleagues at the University of Milan.
A leading authority on the health benefits of wild blueberries, Klimis-Zacas will expand her research in Italy to studying the effects of wild blueberry compounds on DNA degradation in cell cultures and animals, and also on diabetic microangiopathies at Medica Hospital and Medical Research Institution in Milan.
She also will strengthen research collaborations begun in September 2005 during a trade mission to Italy lead by Gov. John Baldacci, Michael Eckardt, UMaine vice president for research, and others. Since that trip, Klimis-Zacas has worked with colleagues at the University of Milan to set goals and objectives for common research projects, which she’ll pursue during her sabbatical.
“I will explore possibilities that graduate and undergraduate students complete internships and or field experiences at the University of Milan and other institutions in the area,” she says.
Klimis-Zacas sees herself in an ambassadorial role for the University of Maine and hopes her work in Italy can benefit the university in several ways.
Her Italian connections will be valuable to UMaine “since they may translate into student and faculty exchanges, student recruitment, extramural funding, original research publications, exposure of our students and faculty to other cultures, and will help fulfill some of the mission statements of UM,” she says. “Additionally, it will aid in implementing one of the goals of the governor’s trade mission to Italy, that of the academic partnership and eventually foster trade and agricultural partnerships.”
Klimis-Zacas has taught at UMaine since 1988, and also was a Senior Fulbright Fellow in 1995, when she conducted research and taught at the National School of Public Health in Athens, Greece.