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CORVALLIS, Ore. - Three faculty members and one former professor at Oregon State University have been awarded 2005-06 Fulbright Scholar grants.

The Fulbright Scholar Program is sponsored by the United States Department of State with additional funding from participating governments and host institutions in the United States and abroad. More than 100,000 U.S. Fulbright award winners have participated in the program since its inception in 1946; nearly 167,000 have taken part from foreign nations.

Through his Fulbright grant, OSU Zoology Professor Philip Brownell is lecturing and conducting research on public literacy and communication within the natural sciences at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany. Brownell studies organization of nervous systems and physiological basis of animal behavior.

Robert Finnan, instructor in the OSU English Language Institute, is lecturing on preparing the next generation of Cypriot English teachers at the University of Cyprus in Nicosia, Cyprus. Finnan has taught abroad on several previous occasions, including a Fulbright lectureship in Romania.

Barbara Gartner, professor of wood science and engineering, is lecturing and doing research on the effect of branching pattern on wood quality and tree productivity in radiata pine at Austral University of Chile in Valdivia, Chile. Gartner works closely with M.S. and Ph.D. candidates in her field at OSU.

Bess Beatty, who recently retired from the OSU Department of History, is lecturing in American history at the University of Zagreb in Zagreb, Croatia. OSU also is hosting three Fulbright Scholars this year. Roberto Ricardo Grau is an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology at the National University of Rosario in Rosario, Argentina. He is conducting research on infectious strains of clostridium bacteria.

Maria Alejandra Martinez de Ghersa is an assistant professor and researcher in the Department of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is doing research on effects of global changes on weed populations.

Euan Gordon Mason is an associate professor of forestry at University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. Mason is lecturing and doing research on hybrid modeling of forest growth.