2 KU students receive German Academic Exchange grants

LAWRENCE -- A May 2002 graduate from Derby and a doctoral student from Colorado Springs at the University of Kansas have received German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) grants for 2002-03.

Brittany Louise Lee, a May 2002 graduate in chemistry from Derby, and Gordon Scott Seeger, a doctoral student in Germanic languages and literatures from Colorado Springs, received DAAD grants for 2002-03 to study in Germany. These grants cover all expenses, including round-trip travel, for an academic year.

The Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst is a publicly funded, private organization of higher education institutions in Germany. The DAAD promotes international academic relations and cooperation by offering grants to students and faculty from all over the world to study or conduct research in Germany and grants to German students and faculty to study and conduct research in other countries.

Lee will spend next year at the University of Heidelberg, where she will enroll in upper-level classes in biochemistry and will conduct research on leischmania and trypanosomes, two parasites that cause various tropical diseases in developing countries. A member of Phi Beta Kappa honor society and the recipient of several academic awards, Lee conducted scientific research while in the KU chemistry department. Last summer she participated in a University of Oregon research program sponsored by the National Science Foundation. She is the daughter of John and Susan Lee of Derby and a graduate of Derby High School.

Seeger will be affiliated with Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany. His dissertation is in German linguistics. While in Kiel he will study language use and sociolinguistic factors among the speakers of North Frisian, a minority German language. Seeger began this research two years ago when he was studying at KU on a KU Graduate Direct Exchange scholarship.