A participant in the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program, Sardorbek Musayev of Uzbekistan arrived at NDSU at the beginning of fall 2009 as a non-degree seeking graduate student. Musayev studies natural resources management and will take what he learns back to his country to help improve water resources.
G. Padmanabhan, director of the North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute and professor of civil engineering, and Carolyn Grygiel, director of the Natural Resources Management program, co-advise Musayev. Because Uzbekistan has been dealing with water-shortage issues for decades, Musayev is heavily interested in this topic.
Before becoming a Muskie fellow, Musayev worked for Oasis FES Ltd., a soil, water and plant testing lab in Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital. In addition to taking courses in water resources and natural resources management fields, Musayev participates in social and co-curricular activities on- and off-campus.
With the help of Padmanabhan and Grygiel, Musayev has secured a summer internship at the Center for Research in Water Resources, University of Texas at Austin. Musayev will work on a research project on the allocation of water in the Syr Darya basin of central Asia. The internship will complement Musayev’s course work in water resources and natural resources management with practical application.
Congress established the Muskie program in 1992 to encourage economic growth in former Soviet countries. The Muskie fellowship is a program under the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State and is administered by the International Research and Exchanges Board. The program provides opportunities for graduate students and professionals from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan for study in the United States.