Fiji RPCV David Browns has spent a good part of the last two years in Uganda digging soil, getting a tan and avoiding wild elephants
Since graduating from Uni High, David Brown has earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, worked in the Peace Corps in Fiji for three years, worked as an energy engineer for the city of Palo Alto, Calif., earned a master's degree in geography from Penn State and decided to do his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin at Madison on an interwar soil-landscape theory originating in East Africa.
"So after spending a good part of the last two years in Uganda digging soil, getting a tan and avoiding wild elephants, I'm now safely tucked away in a communal house 20 miles outside Madison, Wisc., with 225 acres of forest and prairie, and a dissertation to write," David says. "If all goes according to plan, I should be finished within the year and out professing somewhere in a year's time. No wife, no kids, just one girlfriend who sticks needles in people for a living. I haven't attended any sort of church recently, but am trying to walk a spiritual path."
David's e-mail address is:
djbrown2@students.wisc.edu.
Fall-Winter 2001-02
David Brown, a doctoral candidate in soils science at the University of Wisconsin, has been awarded a Fulbright grant and departed in December for about eight months of field work in Uganda. David says he spent the summers of 1998 and 1999 in central Uganda setting up his Ph.D. project and collecting preliminary data. Using modern technology, I am re-examining an old theory of soil-landscape formation, a theory which originated in pre-WWII Uganda. Basically, this involves linking spatial patterns of soil variability to hillslope hydrology models. To do this, I am hiking/biking around the middle of nowhere in central Uganda and digging a lot of holes in the ground, mapping these holes with a Global Positioning System, and constructing a terrain model using satellite imagery. "If any Uni folks are wandering around Africa and want to experience ‘off-the-beaten-path’ village life in Uganda, visitors would be very welcome," he writes. "While I haven’t been the best at keeping in touch while here, I’ll probably do a better job in the field. Without the benefits of electricity and modern entertainment, there is a great deal of time to both write and read letters," he says. You can reach him at:
David Brown
c/o Kiwoko Hospital
P.O. Box 149
Luweero, Uganda
He says those wishing to reach him can also direct his mail through a diplomatic pouch by sending a regular 33-cent first class letter to:
David Brown
(Fulbright Scholar)
Public Affairs Officer
USIS Kampala
U.S. Department of State
Washington, D
20521-2190
He also hopes to be able to receive e-mail at: djbrown2@hotmail.com
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
David Brown is pursuing a master’s degree in geography at Penn State. His research interests include poverty, natural resources, South Asia, and geographic analysis (spatial stats, GIS, visualization, etc.). Brown stopped by Uni for a mini-tour this summer on his way to Pennsylvania.
Winter 1995-96
David Brown catches us up. After graduating from the U of I he joined the Peace Corps, where he served as a physics/math/English teacher in the Fiji Islands. Currently, he holds a job in Palo Alto, CA as an energy conservation specialist. "The two remarkable periods of my life have been my volunteer experience in Fiji and the time I spent at Uni."
Winter 1993
David Brown is now working on a joint doctorate degree in soil science and master's degree in biometry. He spent three months in Uganda last summer doing preliminary field work for his dissertation. He says he did "lots of hiking about in the bush, digging holes in the ground" and had "lots of fun." He hopes to go back to Africa next summer for nine to 12 months of field work. "I don't suppose studying dirt, so to speak, is the most prestigious work, but I enjoy it," he says.
Fall-Winter 1998-99READY
