Moore to collaborate, expand research as Fulbright Scholar in Sweden

The sparkling freshwater lakes and streams of southern Sweden will be the new research sites for Dr. Paul Moore, biological sciences. Moore has been named a Fulbright Scholar for 2017-18, and will spend six months at Lund University, the highest-ranked university in Sweden. He will be there from this September through February 2018.

The director of BGSU’s Laboratory for Sensory Ecology, Moore specializes in crustaceans’ sensory abilities and the role that chemical signals play in their ecological function. With his sabbatical approaching, he spent more than a year identifying the most advantageous place to work, planning and developing his Fulbright application. Lund rose to the top of the list for a variety of reasons.

“Lund is one of the oldest universities in Europe and one of the most prestigious,” Moore said. “It has a group of world-class limnologists (who study the biology, chemistry and geology of inland waters) that I’m looking forward to working with. I’ll be collaborating with researchers there, expanding my research and learning new techniques and systems. They also have contacts all across Europe, so I expect that this will stimulate new research endeavors for me.”

Sweden offers new opportunities to do field work, and Moore said he will be setting up numerous experiments.

“But beyond that, I see this as a research cultural exchange,” Moore said. “The Europeans have a very different approach to research and even to the way they set up their lab environments. I hope to learn new things from them that I can bring back to our students here at BGSU, and in turn show their undergraduate and graduate students how I do research.”

The U.S. State Department encourages Fulbright Scholars to engage widely with others in their region, Moore said, and being situated near the major cities of Malmö and Copenhagen will give him ample opportunity to visit and speak at other universities. He also hopes to travel to Stockholm and even Norway during his stay abroad.

“I want to take full advantage of all the opportunities,” he said.

Even more ambitiously, “I plan to write another book while I’m there,” he said, about how animals sense the world differently from humans. “I want to get inside the eyes, ears and noses of elephants, bats, dolphins and other animals.”

The added benefit that being a Fulbright Scholar offers is the ability to get away from the daily demands of faculty and work life.

“The solitude should give me time to think and do good writing,” Moore said.

His most recent book “The Hidden Power of Smell: How Chemicals Influence Our Lives and Behavior”, written for popular audiences, revealed the complex and vital role that smell plays in our everyday lives.  

Moore joined the BGSU faculty in 1994 charged with developing the Marine Biology Laboratory. He led the emergence of the marine specialization through the mid-1990s, and was instrumental in organizing and developing the J.P. Scott Center for Neuroscience at BGSU, an undergraduate and graduate cross-disciplinary program. The neuroscience major now has about 75 majors. He has received previous NSF support and has published 91 research manuscripts and six book chapters. He has overseen 14 Ph.D. students and 31 master’s students.

In addition, he has held numerous administrative positions at BGSU, including 10 years as director of the Honors Program. In 2016, Faculty Senate presented him its Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Fulbright Program implements the late Sen. William Fulbright's visionary concept of promoting mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries through academic and bicultural exchange. More than 150 countries currently participate in the program.