Rice EEPS emeritus professor, André Droxler was awarded a four month Fulbright scholarship to teach courses in oceanography and geologic history of the Maldives Archipelago at The Maldives National University (MNU) https://fulbrightscholars.org/grantee/andre-droxler
“I started at Rice and made my first journey to the Maldives in the same year, 1987,” says Droxler.
Droxler has been working on and off in the Maldives since that first 1987 ODP cruise (Leg 115). In spite of his retirement, Droxler is still interested in continuing research in this part of the world. More importantly, he wants to convey his comprehensive knowledge gained through almost 40 years of collaborative research between industry, academia, and government.
“Prior to my Fulbright grant in Maldives, I had returned to the Maldives in 2019 to work with different ministries of the Republic of Maldives to develop 3D virtual and augmented reality models [around Male], with our company Andreality369 LLC. COVID derailed this project. In that context, I had always tried to find ways to return to the Maldives to develop new research projects. One of my objectives was to be able to communicate what was known regarding the long and short term geological evolution of the Maldives Archipelago, [especially] following the publication of my joint article with Stéphan Jorry on “The origin of atolls, challenging the ingrained Darwin Model”.
Over the course of the pandemic, Droxler retired from Rice, and while writing the atolls review paper, received invitations by Fulbright to apply for a scholarship available in the Maldives.
The Fulbright Scholar Program encourages retired faculty and Emeriti to apply for awards […] to use their considerable years of teaching and research experience to fulfill Fulbright’s mission of citizen diplomacy. “Since I retired from Rice, I believe it was synchronicity!” says Droxler, who applied in September of 2022 and received the acceptance notice in April 2023.
For these types of awards, scholars primarily teach courses, but can participate in developing curricula, provide student and faculty training, and help build academic capacity.
“After consultation at MNU with Dr. Aishath Shehenaz, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise, and Mr. Adam Khalid, Dean of FEST (Faculty of Engineering, Science and Technology), we decided to focus my Fall 2023 Fulbright scholarship on teaching. Currently MNU only offers Bachelor Degrees in Marine Sciences and Studies and, therefore, research is not yet an important part of the curriculum. While a Master’s Degree in Marine Sciences is currently being developed, the Dean suggested that I should focus my broad understanding of Maldives geologic and oceanographic history into knowledge transfer, but then to also offer advice for developing the overall curriculum of the new Master’s Degree in Marine Sciences.”
The two courses Droxler taught at MNU were Oceans and Global Changes: Learning about Past Climates to Explain Current Climatic Conditions and Forecast Future Climates and Human Mitigationand Adaptation and The making of the Maldives Archipelago in the last 60 million years. The first covers current issues related to climate change and impacts of global warming for the bulk of the Maldives population living at sea level, and second presents the geologic evolution of the Maldives Archipelago as the result of more than 30 years of scientific and industry exploration.
The second course included a capstone activity, an all-day field trip to Rasfari island on the western coral rim of North Malé Island. The excursion focused on identifying the most recent growth (less than 2,000 years) of the carbonate platform in the million year-long evolution of the Maldives Archipelago.
“Over the last 30 years, vast knowledge has been acquired from industry, government and research surveys to inform our understanding of the accumulated 55-57 million years evolution of the Maldives Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. Most of the population lives on one coral reef island, less than 2,000 years old, corresponding to the residual exposed tip of a 2-3 km thick carbonate platform. A mere 850 km in length, it overlies the Chagos-Maldives-Laccadives prominent volcanic Ridge. These courses were a unique opportunity to summarize and transfer my knowledge in a way that would not only be accessible to non-geologists, but in the current environmental conditions, be highly relevant to the economic and sustainable development of the Republic of Maldives," says Droxler.
Droxler was also honored as a keynote speaker at the opening ceremony of the MNU’s 2023 Annual Theveli International Conference. Theveli means ‘the sun’s rays that are spread on the sea when the sun and moon rise and set. The two-day conference, thematically focused on ‘Research for Informed Policy Decisions’, convened just prior to Droxler’s lecture series, enabling him to engage international scholars, Maldives government ministry representatives, including the Maldive’s First Lady and the Minister of High Education, and the wider university student body.
Further Reading:
MNU:
https://mnu.edu.mv/research-development/theveli/
ODP Leg 115: Geological Evolution of the Equatorial Indian Ocean
Backman, J., Duncan, R. A., et al., 1988, Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Initial Reports, Vol. 115 http://wwwodp.tamu.edu/publications/115_IR/VOLUME/CHAPTERS/ir115_01.pdf
Longterm Evolution of the Maldives Archipelago:
Aubert, O., and Droxler, André, 1996, Seismic stratigraphy and depositional signatures of the Maldive carbonate system (Indian Ocean). Marine and Petroleum Geology, Vol. 13, No. 5, pp. 503-536,
Belopolsky, A. V., and A. W. Droxler, 2003, Imaging Tertiary carbonate system—the Maldives, Indian Ocean, The Leading Edge, https://doi.org/10.1190/1.1599690
Belopolsky, A. V., and A. W. Droxler, 2004, Seismic expressions of prograding carbonate bank margins: Middle Miocene, Maldives, Indian Ocean, in Seismic imaging of carbonate reservoirs and systems: AAPG Memoir 81, p. 267–290.
Alessio Rovere, Pankaj Khanna d, Carlo Nike Bianchi e, André W. Droxler d, Carla Morri e, David F. Naar, 2018. GeomorphologyVolume 317, 15 September 2018, Pages 218-232
Submerged reef terraces in the Maldivian Archipelago (Indian Ocean). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.05.026
The Origin of Modern Atolls:
The Origin of Modern Atolls: Challenging Darwin's Deeply Ingrained Theory (https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-marine-122414-034137)
YouTube Video:
https://youtu.be/J950wu7tsmw?si=LJfPJT4vE0EWbxSI
The evolution of Maldives Islands:
Tuğba Yildirim, et al., Late Pleistocene-Holocene Evolution of Malé Island (North Malé Atoll Rim, Republic of Maldives). IAS (2022) Coral Reefs and Sea-Level Change: Quaternary Records and Modelling, 101–140