3 FOCUS - SPRING 2024 When I was growing up, my dad, a university researcher, had a large lab group with about 75% international students and staff. We interacted with them regularly and got to know many of them well. Dad traveled abroad once a month and visited every continent in the world during his career. He brought back stories, new cuisines and an expanded awareness of diverse worldviews as well as our shared humanity. Dad was the son of southern Italian immigrants who came here with few resources, and accordingly, we lived frugally, and I never traveled abroad with him. My first “international” experience was as a grad student in Iowa, when I made it across the Canadian border to Windsor, Ontario. My first research experience abroad was a trip to Russia in the early ‘90s, an eyeopening experience that accelerated my desire to work internationally. This desire was fulfilled in 1999 when I sent an email to forest ecologists in Sweden and shared with them some techniques we were using to study fire effects on soils and recovery. To my surprise, they flew me to Sweden to initiate a collaboration that lasted 17 years and forever altered my career and the lens through which I viewed the world. More important than the papers or proposals we wrote during this time were the relationships, connections and mentoring that I received from my new colleagues. In 2009, I took a position as professor and chair at Bangor University in North Wales, an unforgettable experience which expanded my work in Sweden and opened new channels in the U.K. and the world. I had the privilege of traveling extensively for research and teaching, and hosted graduate students from across Europe, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Nigeria, Ethiopia, The Gambia and North America. Over the last couple of decades, I’ve been lucky enough to conduct research in multiple countries and host amazing scholars from all over the Tom DeLuca Cheryl Ramberg-Ford and Allyn C. Ford Dean Oregon State University College of Forestry world. Even now, as I write this, I am hosting two visiting scholars from China, who are part of the many international researchers the college hosts every year. These international connections are fostered through a collective desire to learn from and support each other’s research. They can lead to cross-boundary collaborations and scientific proposals, but more importantly, they expand our collective perspective as citizens of a global society. The distressing events and conflicts unfolding all over our world and in our 24/7 news cycle are heartwrenching to watch and experience. Having so many international colleagues, who over the years have turned into close friends, has only deepened my sincere hope for peace. Here in the College of Forestry, we have a diverse faculty representing all continents. These faculty bring a wealth of different experiences into the classroom and help broaden the perspective and outlook of our students with whom they engage. We are exceptionally fortunate to have the International Programs office here in the College of Forestry. The office provides study abroad and exchange opportunities to our students, faculty and staff, opening eyes to what is possible through science and collaboration and giving us the priceless gift of a global lens. In this edition of the Focus, you will learn about just some of these incredible individuals and the research and partnerships they are pursuing to accelerate our impact on a global scale.
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