June 30 is an important date for many employees and institutions, as it marks the end of a quarter and may be the end of a fiscal year. Even in the academic community, July 1 is often the start of a new planning cycle.

Therefore, we are taking this opportunity to present some of our own plans for upcoming 12 months. We hope that you will incorporate the Fulbright Academy into your budget and your plans.

October 5-7 – Our third annual program in Cambridge, Mass. The Boston area has one of the highest concentrations of Fulbrighters, alumni and hosts in the world. Each fall, the Academy participates in programs that help bring these scientists together. This year’s events will coincide with the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, a fun and humorous celebration of interesting and unique research. Registration fee: $30 for dinner and $12 for the ceremony.

Mid October – Discussion on Digital Libraries. This event in Boston or Portland, ME, will be an open discussion on the application of digital technologies in the developing world. It also will serve as a planning meeting for our January 2007 Regional Workshop (see below). Estimated registration fee: $15 donation to cover food.

January 26-29, 2007 – Regional Workshop on Digital Libraries. This workshop focuses on telecommunications, computer, and management needs for the preservation of cultural information & materials relating to North Africa. It will be held in Rabat, Morocco, with participation from experts from European, North Africa, and the United States. Details on registration will be available later this summer.

February 15-19 – Career Development Workshop at the AAAS. In 2006, FAST held a career workshop followed by a networking event at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. We are hoping to host a similar program at their 2007 conference in San Francisco, CA. Registration fee: Free

March 1-4 – Fulbrighters in Science – Annual Conference. This year, our conference will be held in Panama City, Panama, and we are expecting 250-300 participants. The conference will have tracks on topics such as chemistry, engineering, medicine, sociology, and environmental conservation. Estimated registration fee: $400.

If you would like to be involved in any of these activities, please send an email to info@FulbrightAcademy.org.

The Fulbright Academy is seeking individuals from around the world to serve on Academy committees.

We currently have five programs that could benefit from your input. These initiatives are funded by outside partners, and they bring together Fulbright scholars and other experts to address specific topics.

1. Committee on Digital Libraries / Archives; seed funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This project is addressing access to and distribution of electronic information. As part of this project, we will be hosting a Fulbright Film Festival next spring.

2. Committee on Science Literacy; seed funding through a NSF contract to Indiana University. This will be a multi-year initiative, and we are starting with a small project that focuses on public perceptions of bacteria.

3. Committee on Clinical Research Ethics; seed funding from the American Board of Healthcare Law & Medicine. This bioethics project compares national and international codes and standards for conducting research on human subjects.

4. History of Science & Impacts of Fulbright; seed funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This project is collecting stories and other data to describe the positive impact that the Fulbright program has on science and the world at large.

5. Meetings Committee. This committee helps plan and organize meetings, such as the March 2007 Conference in Panama, the 2008 Conference in Asia, and forums held around the world.

6. Board of Directors & Advisory Board. These boards oversee the work of the Academy and help it establish relationships with individuals, foundations, organizations, agencies, and institutions of higher education.

If you would like to be involved in any of these committees, please send an email to info@FulbrightAcademy.org.

This request was printed in last month's newsletter. If you responded to that call for volunteers, you do not need to respond again.

Fulbright grantees, alumni and friends are invited to the Fulbright Academy's 2007 Fulbrighters in Science Conference. This 3.5 day conference will be held in Panama City, Panama on 1-4 March 2007. Situated at Central America’s narrowest point, Panama City has been a center for the movement of people and goods between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for centuries. The Academy’s program will include private tours of parks, scientific research stations, and the Panama Canal. The Canal and the Canal Zone (an area around the canal) were administered by the United States from 1903 until 1979.

The 3.5-day conference will have panels and discussions on topics such as ecology, sustainable economic development, chemistry, education, engineering, geography, medical ethics, and digital learning. Alumni from the region and around the world are involved in the planning.

Corporate and institutional sponsors are assisting with the conference through their cash donations or in-kind services. They play a critical role, for example by allowing us to offer reduced-rate registrations and travel assistance to young Fulbrighters and to individuals from developing countries.

If you would like to propose a panel, help with the planning or sponsor the conference, please contact us at info@FulbrightAcademy.org. Information on sponsorship can be found on the website. The conference language is English.

The Academy is pleased to be offering complimentary memberships to three-dozen recent alumni from North Africa and the Middle East. The purpose of these memberships is to help alumni from that region develop professional and personal ties with Fulbrighters in other parts of the world. Valid for two years, these memberships were made possible by a generous donation from one of the Academy’s members.

Recipients of the complimentary memberships will be chosen through one of four ways. (1) Alumni groups and the Fulbright program administrators (e.g. AmidEast) may nominate individuals from the region. (2) US hosts of past and present visiting Fulbrighters from the region may nominate individuals from the region. (3) Friends of alumni may nominate them. (4) Fulbrighters can nominate themselves.

If you would like to recommend a Fulbrighter from North Africa or the Middle East to become a member of the Fulbright Academy, please by send his/her name, email address and additional contact information to ehoward@FulbrightAcademy.org. You may nominate more than one person.

Many Fulbrighters have contributed their stories to the Academy's Story collection or to bulletins published by Fulbright commissions or alumni groups. Please share your news with others in the Fulbright community so that we can know how your Fulbright experience has influenced your personal and professional development. If you have already submitted a story, please send another one.

President Uribe has named Fulbrighter Carolina Renteria as the new Chief of Colombia’s National Planning Office. Ms. Renteria, the second female ever named to the position, recently served as Finance Ministry Budget Director.

Dr. Nithaya Chetty (Fulbright fellow 1985 & 2004) has become President-elect of the South African Institute of Physics. Chetty has maintained strong relationships with the University of Illinois (UIUC), and his membership in the Fulbright Academy is sponsored by Dr. Richard Martin at UIUC.

Academy Member Ulrich Schuster from the ETH in Switzerland is spending the summer in New Jersey. He will be working on wireless communications with Dr. Vincent Poor at Princeton. Dr. Poor has been Director of the Princeton Center for Innovation in Engineering Education (CIEE), and three weeks ago he was named Dean of the Princeton’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.

The European School for Management & Technology (an Academy member) is hosting an executive training program on "Winning and Keeping Industrial Customers" on 23-27 October. The program will teach tools to analyze purchasing processes for industrial goods and services, quantifying customer benefit, and understanding the role of accounting information in your decision-making process. It will also cover topics such as key account management, market segmentation, product and service positioning and activity mapping. On September 12-15, EMST is hosting a seminar on leadership, dealing with the why and how of human behavior in organizations.

We are seeking hosts and partners for two types of meetings.

1. Our 2008 Annual Conference will be held in Asia. The Academy is issuing a Request for Proposals from Fulbright Alumni Organizations in Asia to serve as institutional partners in organizing that conference. Your involvement would begin this year through your participation on the 2007 Conference Committees and with your attendance at the March 2007 Conference in Panama.

2. The "Fulbright Forums" are meetings held around the world in collaboration with other institutions - Fulbright Commissions, Alumni Groups, Universities and other organizations. The goal of these forums is to jointly promote Fulbright exchanges, the Fulbright Academy and your institution. If you are organizing an event, please contact us to see if we can make it a "Fulbright Forum" by incorporating some Fulbrighters into the program or inviting local Fulbrighters to attend.

The Fulbright Academy is a non-profit membership-based organization that serves scientists, executives, and scholars worldwide. Our sponsors and supporters include institutional and individual members, Fulbright alumni groups and commissions, corporations/businesses, and foundations. If you would like information on becoming a supporter or institutional member, please send an email to info@FulbrightAcademy.org

After three years of operation, the Fulbright Academy has a growing membership base. By joining the Academy, you will be supporting our work - our conferences, the study committees, and our Fulbright Forums. You will receive invitations to special events, and we also help members link up with other Fulbrighters in their respective fields. Individual memberships start at $60, with reduced rates available for students, retired individuals and those living in low- and middle-income countries.

Institutions in the US and elsewhere are collaborating with the Academy on several projects and programs. These collaborations typically are funded by a grant or contract from a foundation or agency. The first step is in this process typically is joining as an institutional member. Information on institutional memberships is available on our website.

FAST welcomes our newest sponsor - the SalesForce.com Foundation. SalesForce has developed a unique internet-based relationship management program. Designed to help an organizaton track its relationships with clients and members, it is currently used by 22,700 clients, including over 1,000 non-profits. FAST will be using their software so that we can better serve you - our members, supporters and subscribers.

The Fulbright Academy is not affiliated with the US State Department, the US Fulbright Association or the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. We are independently funded, and so your support is very important to us.

As a fellow grantee of the program (Germany '89), I look forward to having you as a member and participant.

Sincerely,

Mr. Eric S. Howard, Executive Director