Calvin Professor Earns Fulbright Scholars Award

May 26, 2004 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Joel Adams spent his first stint as a Fulbright Scholar, back in 1998-99, in
Mauritius, a tropical island located roughly 500 miles east of Madagascar.

Now Adams, a professor of computer science at Calvin College, has earned
another Fulbright Scholars award and again he plans to spend it on an island.
In this case, however, the island isn't in the tropics. Instead he'll spend
January through June 2005 on the island of Iceland.

There he will teach at the Technological University of Iceland, bringing a
variety of Calvin computer science courses with him to the curriculum in
Iceland. He also plans to work on a book he is writing on computer
programming.

And he hopes to continue with a project he began in Mauritius: studying how
and why women choose to major in computer science.

Adams was surprised to find when he was teaching in Mauritius that about half
of his students were women (compared with 10-15 percent at Calvin). He did a
study in Mauritius and found that at the same time women in computer science
were on the decline in the United States, Britain and other countries, the
numbers were climbing in Mauritius.

"There were a number of cultural differences in Mauritius that seemed to be
encouraging women to study computer science," he says, "at the same time
aspects of our culture here in the U.S. were discouraging women from studying
it."

Using data gathered during his Fulbright stay in Mauritius, Adams (who majored
in computer science and psychology as an undergraduate) and two colleagues
wrote and presented a well-received paper on women in computer science at a
2003 conference on computer science education.

In Iceland he hopes to continue his study of the topic, visiting the few
universities that offer computer science programs to collect data on their
gender representation. Eventually he will compare Iceland, Mauritius, the U.S.
and Britain.

Adams says that, despite, its name, Iceland isn't quite as frigid as people
might think. Because of the proximity of the Gulf Stream, the average winter
temperature in the capital city of Reykjavik is similar to New York, while
summer temps are generally in the 70s.

Still, Adams admits, Iceland will be quite a contrast from Mauritius and, for
that matter, from Grand Rapids.

"Mauritius," he says, "is one of the most densely populated places on the
planet. Iceland, meanwhile, is sparsely populated."

Indeed almost 80 percent of Iceland is uninhabited and mostly uninhabitable.
The population is concentrated in a narrow coastal belt, valleys and the
southwest corner of the country. Iceland has fewer people than greater Grand
Rapids with a population of about 290,000 spread out over an area about the
size of Michigan's lower peninsula. Of that population over half - about
180,000 - live in or around Reykjavik, the city that will be home to the Adams
family next year.

Adams also hopes to take advantage, with his family, of the ever-lengthening
days during their stay in Iceland. When they arrive in January they will have
about two hours of daylight per day. By the time they depart in June it will
more or less be day all day long!

"We wanted to go while the days were getting longer," he says with a chuckle.
"It will be interesting to see how our bodies respond to the photo shift."

Adams is the ninth Calvin professor to earn a Fulbright Scholars award since
1982-83, joining David VanBaak (1998-99), John VanZytfeld (1990-91), Gerard
Venema (1989-90), James Lamse and Stanley Wiersma (both 1985-86), Dale VanKley
(1983-84) and Roger DeKock and Henrietta TenHarmsel (both 1982-83).

He is one of approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel
abroad to some 140 countries for the 2004-2005 academic year through the
Fulbright Scholar Program. Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by
the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program's purpose is
to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other
countries. The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State,
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. For more on the Fulbright Program
see www.cies.org

Contact Joel Adams at 616-526-8562 or adams@calvin.edu
See http://cs.calvin.edu/faculty/index.php

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Received on Wed May 26 11:17:43 2004