UB was one of this year's top producers of scholars awarded prestigious teaching and research grants through the 2010 to 2011 Fulbright Program.
The Fulbright international educational exchange program is funded by more than $200 million a year through the U.S. Department of State. Each year, the Fulbright Program awards approximately 7,500 new grants based on academic merit and leadership.
"UB has always been competitive in winning Fulbright awards for faculty, with several getting fellowships each year," said John Wood, associate vice provost for international education. "This year we've had a particularly strong showing, tied for fourth among research universities in the U.S."
A total of six UB scholars received Fulbright research awards for the current school year. Only George Washington University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill produced more Fulbright scholars, according to a list published by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, a division of the Institute of International Education.
UB is tied with Harvard University, Cleveland State University, the University of Florida, Virginia Commonwealth University and Washington University (St. Louis), each of which produced six scholars. Buffalo placed ahead of Stanford University, UCLA, the University of Delaware and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, which each produced five scholars.
"In general, our faculty is increasingly internationalized and seek out overseas opportunities for research and teaching such as those afforded by the Fulbright Program," Wood said. "Fulbright now offers a range of opportunities to faculty, from short-term programs of six to eight weeks, to year-long stints at host institutions overseas."
UB's 2010-11 Fulbright scholars include:
• Sampson Lee Blair, an associate professor in the department of sociology, who began lecturing and conducting research at Xavier University on the island of Mindanao, Republic of the Philippines, this past June and will return this month.
• Daniel Hess, an associate professor in the urban and regional planning department in the School of Architecture and Planning, is spending the fall semester teaching and conducting research at Estonia's Tallinn University of Technology.
• Kee Chung, professor and chairman of financial planning and control, will spend the spring semester at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, where he will teach and conduct research on market microstructure.
• Robert Granfield, professor and chair in the department of sociology, is spending the fall 2010 semester at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, conducting research related to the evolving role of pro bono legal work in Canada as well as in a global context.
• Alissa Anne Lange, a senior research scientist in the Graduate School of Education, who is spending the fall 2010 semester lecturing and conducting research on the teaching and learning of early math skills at Francisco Jose de Caldas District University in Bogota, Columbia.
• Lilliam Malave Lopez, an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education, is lecturing and conducting research into second language acquisition through the teaching of contact areas material to gifted and talented learners during the fall semester at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in Lima.
Each year, the Fulbright Program allows Americans to study or conduct research in over 140 nations and enables U.S. citizens to gain international competence in an interdependent world.
Recipients of the Fulbright awards are grateful for the opportunities presented by the program.
"Although I am a family sociologist, and I would like to think that I am fairly well versed in understanding other cultures, there is an enormous difference between reading about cultures in a textbook versus actually living amongst the people themselves," said Sampson Blair an associate professor in the Department of Sociology. "Over the past five months, I have met people from all walks of Philippine society, from the well-educated to the poorest farmers who live up in the mountain jungles. I can honestly say that it has given me a new and very different perspective, both for my professional pursuits and also for my own life."
The U.S. Congress created the Fulbright Program in 1946, immediately after World War II, to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges. Today, the Fulbright Program is the U.S. government's premier scholarship program.
"I am truly grateful for this opportunity to engage with the research and work I enjoy and value in such a welcoming, warm country, while being able to improve my Spanish and connect to another culture in a way that would not have been possible as a tourist," said Alissa Anne Lange, a senior research scientist in the Graduate School of Education. "I would recommend this experience to anyone. This semester has been absolutely fascinating, and one of the best experiences of my life."
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Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
