Dr. Mulageta Araya will be visiting the department for six months as a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow.

Dr. Mulageta Alene Araya arrived from Ethiopia on January 3, 2011 for a 6-month visit to the Department as a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow. Dr. Alene is an Associate Professor of Geological Sciences and an Associate Dean at the University of Addis Ababa. He is an important member of a multi-institutional team of scientists working on the WORMIL Paleoanthropological Research Project, which is directed by Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Curator of Physical Anthropology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Dr. Alene will be working with Dr. Beverly Saylor on a petrographic and geochemical study of basal samples from the WORMIL field area. The aim of the study is to determine whether different basaltic layers can be distinguished from each other geochemically and if they can be related to other known basaltic formations in the region. The study also aims to connect basaltic volcanism to rifting and tectonic evolution in the area.