Balkan Sojourn

While seeking an apartment for his six-month stay in Slovenia as a Fulbright professor, Stephen Bialkowski’s prospective landlady informed him that she was Serbian. She asked if he was still interested in the property.

“It was one of those times when you know a person’s comment holds significance, but you don’t really understand the context,” says Bialkowski, who is a professor of analytical chemistry in Utah State University’s Chemistry and Biochemistry Department.

 

The reason for her upfront comment would become clearer as Bialkowski immersed himself in Slovenian culture and gained greater awareness of the complex web of diverse ethnicities, intense nationalism, divided loyalties and uneasy armistice that defines the Balkan states after centuries of bloody conflict.

 

From January to July 2006, Bialkowski conducted research and lectured at the University of Nova Gorica in Slovenia’s westernmost Goriška region. Perched on the southern slope of the Julian Alps between Italy’s northeastern border and the Adriatic Sea, the Soca River valley, in which the university is situated, boasts picturesque villages and rolling hills filled with olive groves and vineyards.

 

The most homogeneous of the Balkan states and a recent entrant into the European Union, Slovenia remained virtually unscathed in recent conflicts. But its communities harbor many ethnic Serbs, Croats, Albanians and others, who, like Bialkowski’s landlady, sought refuge and better job opportunities from their war-torn homes in the former Yugoslavia.

 

“I saw the former homes of Serbs, now burned out and abandoned, during a visit to Croatia,” says Bialkowski. He noted fresh garbage strewn about the disheveled dwellings, perhaps a continuing insult to forces led by the late Slobodan Miloševic.

 

At Nova Gorica, Bialkowksi taught both undergraduate and graduate students and instructed fledgling researchers in the use of photothermal spectroscopy. Measurement of environmental pollution is a key focus of the university’s research activities, including monitoring of the spread of organophosphate pesticides, which are widely used in Slovenia, the United States and throughout the world.

 

Organophosphates are akin to chemical warfare nerve gas agents, says Bialkowski. Applied in spray form, they drift indiscriminately into schoolyards, residential areas and water sources and pose a serious health threat, especially to children. He and colleague Mladen Franko, a Nova Gorica professor, have pioneered a less costly and less invasive testing method using spectroscopy to measure human exposure and promote timely treatment.

 

Beyond pesticides, the institute’s researchers are investigating a broad array of environmental concerns, ranging from use of titanium oxide in window coatings to fight air pollution to measurement of ibuprofen in municipal wastewater.

 

“I’d never heard of anyone studying the amount of Advil in local watersheds,” says Bialkowski, who adds that little is known about whether or not accumulation of the popular painkiller has a significant environmental impact.

 

A similar and intriguing study by researchers in nearby Milan, Italy, measured the amount of cocaine in a local river basin. Findings indicated that cocaine use in the Lombardy metropolis was neither predominately recreational nor “weekend only” as previously thought.

 

“As in many European countries, Slovenia has a strong research emphasis bioremediation and environmental science,” says Bialkowski. “There’s a lot of interest in and concern for public health.”

 

Bialkowski hopes to arrange an exchange program in environmental sciences involving faculty and graduate students from Utah State and Nova Gorica.

 

In contrast to American doctoral students, he says, Slovenian scholars write their own research proposals and secure their own funding, usually from E.U. scientific authorities or from private industry. “Successfully conducted research funded by a private corporation virtually guarantees job placement with that entity upon graduation.”

 

“I was impressed with the professionalism of the students,” Bialkowski says. “Ph.D students own their research problems and, upon graduation, are well equipped to compete in public and private research arenas.”

 

An avid cyclist, Bialkowksi took advantage of opportunities to train on steep mountain roads as well as enjoy scenic tours of the Adriatic coast and Venice — all within a 100-kilometer radius. While tackling an alpine ride on a particularly raw February day, he met a member of the Goriška Brda cycling team, which adopted the Yank into their circle.

 

“They gave me their full team attire emblazoned with their motto, which, roughly translated, means, ‘We ride bikes well ‘cause we drink well,’” he says.

 

Bialkowski was one of approximately 800 scholars from the United States who traveled abroad during the 2005-06 academic year through the Fulbright Scholar Program. Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program's purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries.

 

 

Contact: Stephen Bialkowski, 435-797-1907