Feeding Egypt through education. I UF/IFAS helps Egyptian universities meet nation's projected agricultural needs Egypt Grant, from page 1 outcomes of operational programs. I Students will study some of the world's most important wetlands, which are under intense pressure in Florida, Australia, Botswana, Brazil, and Mexico. Human pressures on wetlands essential to human existence and wildlife will provide outstanding training for Ph.D. research fellows. Other faculty will participate in the 1 project. The NSF is trying to change the culture of graduate education to produce scientists able to solve comI plex problems. NSF feels today's training methods are too narrowly focused. i" Contact: Sandra Russo, srusso@ufic.ufl.edu UF/IFAS . reaches five African nations with Uganda pesticide school P peter Nkedi-Kizza, Soil & Water Science department, spent six weeks in Uganda teaching the fifth African Network for the Chemical Analysis of Pesticides (ANCAP) summer course for the ANCAP School of Tropical Pesticide Management. ANCAP is a non-governmental, nonpolitical, non-sectarian, and non-profit scientific body devoted to the science of chemical analysis of pesticides, including residue analyses, degradation, and environmental fate. T he new UF/IFAS dean for the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Kirby Barrick, traveled to Cairo and Ain Sokhna, Egypt with Shannon Gary Washburn of the Agricultural Education and Communication department, to help Egyptian universities deliver high quality education. Conducted under a USAID/MUCIA Agricultural Exports and Rural Initiatives (AERI) project, the training responds to the nation's projected agricultural production needs. Egypt is faced in the near future with feeding a rapidly growing population with limited financial resources to import agricultural commodities. Egypt hopes to expand its standard of living by increasing agricultural yields and efficiency. The key to doing that effectively is improving the education universities provide to their students and client groups. The three main components of the trip were: Establishment of external advisory committees and student internship programs; a workshop for deans, associate deans, and department heads for horticulture, agricultural economics, and animal sciences at Cairo, Fayoum, Assiut, Minia, and South Valley universities; *Curriculum and teaching development and a workshop for faculty from Assiut, Fayoum and Cairo Participating countries are Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The course on sorption of organic chemicals on soils and sediments attracted twenty participants, mainly graduate students, representing every member nation except Ethiopia. These schools have provided a forum universities; and A follow-up workshop with faculty who participated in faculty development workshops at Florida and Ohio State in spring 2005. Project partners conducting this training with UF/IFAS are Illinois (lead partner), Purdue, Minnesota, Ohio State, and Lincoln universities. This was the fourth four-day faculty development workshop in Egypt conducted under this project. More than sixty Egyptian faculty trained so far have taken on the new role of "teaching experts" for their colleges, improving their status within those colleges. A long-term project goal is a trade partnership between the U.S. and Egypt.-+ See full article on web! CONTACT: Shannon Washburn SGWashburn@ifas.ufl.edu or Kirby Barrick, kbarrick@ufl.edu International travel grants have been awarded! For a list of recipients, see the on-line newsletter at: http://international.ifas.ufl.edu/news.htmi for exchange and sharing of research results within the region and this has helped in the identification of research gaps. The summer schools have helped set research priorities in the region, as well.CONTACT: Peter Nkedi-Kizza kizza@ifas.ufl.edu See the web for full articles! August/September 2005 3 ..