OU Professor Named Fulbright U.S. Scholar Fellow

NORMAN, OKLA. – Gerilyn Soreghan, Ph.D., a geosciences professor at the University of Oklahoma, has been selected to receive a Fulbright U.S. Scholar fellowship to Serbia for the 2023-2024 academic year. The fellowship is awarded by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board in recognition of Soreghan’s academic merit and leadership potential.

Fulbright Scholar Awards are prestigious and competitive fellowships that provide unique opportunities for scholars to teach and conduct research abroad. Fulbright scholars also play a critical role in U.S. public diplomacy, establishing long-term relationships between people and nations.

“Dr. Soreghan’s selection as a Fulbright scholar is a testament to her impact as a world-class scholar,” said OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. “It is always significant when an organization such as the Fulbright Scholar program recognizes the academic excellence of our faculty. We can’t wait to see the exciting outcomes and discoveries that will come from Dr. Soreghan’s research during her time abroad.”

Soreghan is the director of the School of Geosciences at Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy. Her research focuses on the use of sediments and sedimentary rocks to interpret paleoenvironments and to understand the history and behavior of Earth’s climate. She also has a research interest in how rock weathering, loess and atmospheric dust (modern and ancient) impact the carbon cycle and ancient glaciations.

Soreghan is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, recipient of the Society for Sedimentary Geology’s James Lee Wilson Award for Excellence in Sedimentary Geology by a Young Scientist and was a Distinguished Lecturer for the Continental Scientific Drilling Division of the GSA. She earned her bachelor’s degree in geology from UCLA and her Ph.D. in geology from the University of Arizona in Tucson. She joined the OU geosciences faculty in in 1996.

Soreghan joins alumni of the Fulbright Scholar program, which includes 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 78 MacArthur Fellows, and thousands of leaders and world-renowned experts in academia and many other fields across the private, public and non-profit sectors.

For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit eca.state.gov/fulbright.