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, a fun and humorous celebration of interesting and unique research. The prize ceremony is on Thursday evening at Harvard, and the prize lectures are on Saturday afternoon. $50 for dinner and the ceremony. Lectures are free.

Mid October – Discussion on Digital Libraries. 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).

January 25-28, 2007 – Regional Workshop: Implementing a Maghreb Digital Library for Education, Science & Culture. 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 – Implementing the UN Millennium Development Goals. The conference focus is on how science & technology can help society meet international goals relating to health, education, economic development, and environmental sustainability. Our annual conference will be held in Panama City, Panama, and we are expecting 250-300 participants. Estimated registration fee: $350-400, with discounts for those from low- & middle-income countries.

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

Academy member Mark Vlasic has been appointed to be a White House Fellow. Mark Vlasic has been practicing law in the Litigation, International Trade, and Public Policy Practice Groups at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Prior to joining the firm, he served as a prosecution attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where he was a member of the Slobodan Milosevic and Srebrenica trial and investigative teams. He has lectured throughout Europe and taught at international law training courses for Iraqi jurists (including a course for the judges trying Saddam Hussein), which led to his providing commentary to CNN, FOX News, CBS and NPR. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and conducted his post-graduate studies on a Fulbright at Universiteit Leiden. He is one if 14 White House Fellows in the 2006-2007 Class. Founded in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Fellows program provides first-hand experience at the highest levels of the Federal government. Fellows typically spend one year working as full-time, paid special assistants to senior White House Staff, Cabinet Secretaries, and other top-ranking government officials.

Academy member Meredith Schuman has completed her Fulbright year and will be going at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena on a Max Planck Society stipend. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and she was an active participant at our 2006 conference in Berlin. Meredith is completing her master's at an MPI in Göttingen and will be at the MPI for Chemical Ecology in Jena for her PhD. She writes, "The Germany experience opened up to me by the Fulbright has been great."

Academy member Arthur Holst has been awarded a second Fulbright. He will teach American Environmental Policy and Urban Environmental Issues in the United States at Kazan State University of Architecture and Building Constructions in the Spring of 2007. Arthur is Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Manager for the Philadelphia Water Department. He previously served as a Chief of Staff at Philadelphia City Council. He earned his degrees at Temple University, finishing with a Ph.D. in Political Science. He is an adjunct faculty member at Widener University in the Master of Public Administration Program and also teaches for Fairleigh Dickinson University. Arthur has contributed to a number of reference works on various subjects related to political science, history and the environment. His Fulbright in 2001 was to Kharkiv State Academy of Municipal Economy in the Ukraine where he lectured on the evolution of American city government.

Enrique Flores Castillo, an alumnus of the Fulbright Student Program from El Salvador, opened a water bottling plant and drinking water store called ECOPURA, S.A. in 1998. At that time, it was the first water store in Central America. Flores now is the general manager and owner of three water bottling plants. He earned a master of science degree in Water Resource Engineering from Arizona State University during his Fulbright studies, and his advisor at ASU also advised him in his business venture.

The new Ambassador of Uganda to Switzerland, Arsene Balihuta, is a Fulbrighter. Mr. Balihuta will also be representing Uganda at the many UN agencies in Geneva. He is an economist and former associate professor and vice dean of the Faculty of Economics and Management at Makerere University in Kampala. Mr. Balihuta participated in the Fulbright program in 1988 and received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Notre Dame.

In approximately 50 countries, the administration of the Fulbright program lies with bi-national Fulbright Commissions; in other countries, that role is played by the US Embassy. The Fulbright Program in Argentina had a 50th anniversary celebration with a reception at the US Ambassador's residence on June 23, 2006. US President Bush’s wife, Laura Bush, gave a special greeting in a video prepared specifically for the occasion. Over 300 guests attended Ambassador Gutierrez’s event, including numerous current grantees and Fulbright alumni. The Fulbright Commission in South Africa closed its doors in March 2006; its work will now be managed by the US Embassy. According to a 1998 speech by Stacy Rhodes of USAID, the commission in South Africa was established at that time and chaired by Richard Fehnel of the Ford Foundation.

The Fulbright Commission in India co-sponsored a workshop on “Community Participation in Urban Water, Sanitation and Waste Water Systems” in Pune through the Fulbright Indo-American Environment Leadership Program (IAELP). The workshop took stock of the state of water, sanitation, and wastewater treatment in Pune, highlighting ecological, social and economic issues, and sharing case studies and ideas for innovative water and sanitation management. The workshop was attended by about 50 people, engaging a wide-range of civic authorities and representatives of citizens’ groups, NGOs, architects and town planners. It is the first in a series of interactions involving community participation in development planning, with the focus on urban water systems.

The UN Millennium Development Goals will be the main theme for our 2007 Conference in Panama - how can science & technology be applied to problems of international development – poverty, hunger, maternal health, AIDS, environmental sustainability, etc. The four-day conference will be held in Panama City on 1-4 March 2007.

The framework for our discussion will be the eight goals identified by the international community. (www.un.org/millenniumgoals/) We will have special lectures, panel and roundtable discussions, two poster sessions and private tours of parks, scientific research stations, and the Panama Canal.

Ambassadors, Nobel Prize winners, government officials and corporate executives have been invited to speak on the panels. Alumni from the region and around the world are involved in this process, and if you would like to propose a high-level speaker, we would welcome your input.

In addition to the eight UN goals, other topics will also be covered. The first day of the conference will have workshops - proposed topics include engineering, non-profit management, criminology, marine biology, chemistry, and renewable energy. Such topics also will be addressed during the tours and at theme-oriented roundtables. In addition, there are two poster sessions where Fulbrighters past and present may present their research.

Universities and other institutions may wish to reserve a space in the Exhibit Hall. Corporations, agencies and institutions are also assisting with the conference through sponsorships 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 help with the planning or sponsor the conference, please contact Eric Howard at ehoward@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.

We are pleased to recognize some of these new members:

Rawaa Al-Saadi of Damascus, Syria, is currently the national coordinator for the United Nations Development Program’s Global Environment Facility/Small Grant Program in Syria. In 2000-2002, Rawaa was a Fulbright grantee at Texas Tech University, earning a masters of science degree in civil engineering-water resources management.

Dr. Tarek Abou Elmaaty of Egypt is an associate professor of organic chemistry at Mansoura University. As a result of his Fulbright stay in the United States, Dr. Elmaaty has published numerous papers with Dr Lyle Castle of the Department of Chemistry at Idaho State University in Pocatello.

Dr. Ali M. Hama Amin was a 2004 Fulbrighter from Iraq to Harvard University, where he studied health policy and management. He is now the Director of Academic Relations at Hawler Medical University – a recently established institution created by the merger of the Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, and Pharmacy programs at Salahaddin University. Hawler is in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq. (Permission given)

Dr. Farhad M. Hassan was a Fulbrighter with Dr. Hama Amin at Harvard in 2004. He is now teaching at the Duhok University College of Medicine, a university that was created in 1992. Duhok is also in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq.

Additional 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.

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.

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 Fulbright program (Germany '89), I look forward to having you as a member and participant.

Sincerely,

Mr. Eric S. Howard, Executive Director