Rowan Compton \u201925, M.S. \u201926, has been awarded a Fulbright to conduct cultural and geospatial research examining large-scale agricultural expansion in Northeastern Brazil, and Kaya Banka \u201926 received a\u00a0Fulbright to research how pregnancy surrogates are affected by the embryo transfer process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compton will travel to Brazil and conduct fieldwork during the 2026\u20132027 academic year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout his years at Clark, he worked on\u00a0a NASA-funded research project<\/a>, led by geography professors Gustavo Oliveira and Robert Gil Pontius Jr., that examined irrigation expansion and pivots in the Cerrado biome, a Brazilian savanna in Western Bahia, about nine hours from Goi\u00e2nia. Compton spent a portion of his time in Goi\u00e2nia with the Image and Geoprocessing Laboratory (Labrat\u00f3rio de Processamento de Imagens e Geoprocessamento, or LAPIG) at the Federal University of Goi\u00e1s, Brazil, mapping pastures and the Cerrado under Ana Paula Matos, a post-doctorate researcher at LAPIG.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Graduate School of Geography is part of Clark\u2019s\u00a0School of Climate, Environment, and Society<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2024, Compton received funding from the\u00a0Steinbrecher Fellowship Program<\/a>\u00a0to study land use and water scarcity<\/a> in the Cerrado at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute. He also worked with the Brazilian GIS network MapBiomas, the world\u2019s largest open-science collaboration making land-change maps, as well as with local English teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compton\u2019s desire to study in Brazil stemmed from his experience living in Portugal while in high school. His career plans are steered by a life-long passion for maps and the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since receiving his bachelor\u2019s degree in geography<\/a> in May 2025, Compton has been working toward his master\u2019s in geographic information science<\/a> (GIS) through Clark\u2019s\u00a04+1 Accelerated Master\u2019s Degree program<\/a>. He plans to pursue his Ph.D. in geography at the University of California, Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI could not be happier with my time at Clark,\u201d Compton wrote in a LinkedIn post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is my absolute dream school and one of the top schools in the world in the field. I cannot wait to begin this next journey and am very grateful to everyone who has helped me get to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Banka received a\u00a0Fulbright award to Poland to fund her research, \u201cImmune health assessment in female mice following pregnancies obtained by embryo transfer.\u201d The project studies the effect of non-self-embryo (the embryo taken from another female) on the health of the surrogate mother, particularly the immune response caused by this medical intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Banka will\u00a0carry out her research at the Ptak Lab at Jagiellonian University<\/a> in Krakow, Poland, under the supervision of Dr. Grazyna Ewa Ptak and Ph.D. student Richard Musson. She also plans to volunteer at the Jagiellonian University Hospital to expand her fluency in medical terminology and to learn about the culture through dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am very excited to contribute to research in an understudied field, while also engaging in meaningful cross-cultural exchange between Poland and the United States,\u201d she said. \u201cMy work will also advance knowledge in reproductive technologies and life-long health, which is crucial to public health priorities in both the U.S. and Poland and can help improve healthcare practices in both countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n During her time at Clark, Banka has worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Meyer Lab<\/a>, studying the development of the ventral midline in the annelid\u00a0Capitella teleta.<\/em>\u00a0She also completed an internship at the Andalusian Center for Developmental Biology in Seville, Spain, where she investigated zygotic genome activation in zebrafish.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Banka\u2019s experiential learning opportunities were made possible, supported, or recognized by a ClarkCONNECT summer internship, a Plave Family Research Fellowship<\/a>, an Experiential Learning Award, and the Dr. Kenneth A. Senter \u201943 Endowed Award for Premed Undergraduates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Banka, who is majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology<\/a> with a minor in environmental science<\/a>, ultimately plans to return to the U.S. to support Polish immigrant communities as a medical physician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Fulbright Program is among the most prestigious postgraduate awards that a student can win. Rowan and Kaya embody the excellence that this fellowship demands and show that Clark graduates are among the very best in the country,\u201d said Steven Moon, director of special academic opportunities. \u201cOur university offers an experiential education that prepares students like Rowan and Kaya to immediately take on advanced research projects, and that is not common amongst the national applicant pool.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rowan Compton \u201925, M.S. \u201926, and Kaya Banks \u201926 have received Fulbright Awards that wll support their research abroad. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":28333,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"var(--clarku-color-blue)","story_headerImg":28333,"section_label":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[241,246],"displayed_author":[498],"featured":[494],"topic":[243,623,165,570,280],"class_list":["post-28332","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment-sustainability","category-health-wellbeing","displayed_author-clark-news-staff","featured-secondary","topic-biochemistry-and-molecular-biology","topic-fulbright-award","topic-geography","topic-m-s-in-gis","topic-prestigious-fellowships-and-scholarships"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Rowan](\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024-Rowan-GIS-NH-00-5-1024x682.avif\")
![\"Kyra](\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Kaya_Banka_07_May_2026-41-1024x683.avif\")