Southeast professor's Fulbright Scholar trip to Bangladesh canceled by State Department

A Southeast Missouri State University professor was scheduled to teach green chemistry in Bangladesh as a part of Fulbright Scholar grant program, but that trip has been canceled by the U.S. State Department because of safety concerns in Bangladesh.

Mohammed Ali received the grant in April.

He was supposed to teach at the University of Business, Agriculture and Technology in Dhaka in the spring and summer semesters of 2017.

The U.S. Department of Passports and International travel issued a warning in January about traveling to Bangladesh after a terrorist attack July 1 at a restaurant in the diplomatic center of Dhaka that killed 20 people, including a U.S. citizen.

The terrorism groups al-Qaida and ISIS publicly took credit for the attack.

Ali is a U.S. citizen but is originally from Bangladesh.

He already had taught green chemistry in Bangladesh on previous trips.

To go to a different country, Ali would need to file another application with the Fulbright committee.

“Right now, everything is on the back burner,” Ali said.

Ali said he is planning to apply for a grant to allow students to teach green chemistry in India, where he also has traveled and taught.

Green chemistry involves the development of procedures to create chemical reactions that produce as little waste as possible, Ali said. Some reactions can create toxic waste water or gases.

Ali is working not only to create reactions that produce little to no waste, but also to create reactions that produce waste that is not harmful to the environment.