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Welcome to the Fulbright Academy of Science and Technology's monthly electronic news
bulletin. This publication is sent to educational innovators and to leaders in scientific and technical fields in
the US and around the world. Please look to the end of this email for information about the Academy and its mission. We can be reached at info@fulbrighter.org.
The Academy is an independent non-profit managed by a
dedicated group of volunteers. The Academy receives support from
businesses, institutions, organizations, foundations, and individuals
interested in developing a network of leaders in science and technology.
It is not affiliated with the US State Department and the Board of Foreign
Scholars, which oversee the global Fulbright Exchange Program. The US
State Department is not responsible for the content of this bulletin, and
it cannot be assumed that they approve or endorse any material appearing
in it.
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Conference -- Central Asia on the Paths of
Transformation |
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| The Fulbright Academy of Science &
Technology (FAST) proudly announces a multidisciplinary conference
on "Central Asia on the Paths of Transformation", to be held in
Tashkent, Uzbekistan on Nov. 19-21. As with most of our programs,
the purpose of this conference is to bring together academia,
researchers, analysts, practitioners, and policy-makers to exchange
ideas, to share recent research endeavors, and to network. Other
sponsors are USAID, NATO, OCSE, and the Fulbright Association of
Uzbekistan.
The conference is organized by Dr. Lola Gulyamova, a geographer
at the Uzbekistan National University. She was a Fulbright Visiting
Scholar in 1996-1997 with the National Center for Geographic
Information and Analysis at the University of California, Santa
Barbara. Her scientific interests are in a field of GIS
(Geographical Information Systems) and remote sensing methods used
for the study of rural and urban populations. The author of 10 books
and 70 papers, she currently serves as Chair of the Board of the
Fulbright Association of Uzbekistan.
The topics to be covered by conference sessions will encompass
interdisciplinary approaches to contemporary issues, future
prospects, and identifying trends in economic development, natural
resource use, international relations, security, and civil society.
For additional information about the conference, please visit the
FAU website, below.
Fulbright Association of
Uzbekistan »
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Mountain Research in Asia |
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 As a result of seed-money funding
from the National Science Foundation for an Atlas of Afghanistan in
the 1970s, Dr. John (Jack) Shroder traveled extensively in the Hindu
Kush Mountains, and became fascinated with the place and people. A
Fulbright to that country in 1977-78 was terminated abruptly by the
communist coup d'etat and Soviet invasion. To help the Afghans in
their subsequent refugee trauma, as well as to continue developing
his high mountain expertise, he obtained another Fulbright to
Peshawar, Pakistan in 1983-84. These two Fulbrights were
instrumental in jump-starting a three- decade career in the highest
mountains on the planet, with most gratifying results.
These same mountains, however, continue to be torn all along
their great span by fratricidal combat, particularly between
predominantly Islamic Afghanistan and Pakistan with Hindu India, but
also between other factions and governments in Nepal, Tibet, China
and other parts of South Asia.
Recently Harry Barnes, former US Ambassador to India and now
Senior Advisor to the Asia Society, has requested that those with
interests in South Asia work collectively toward encouraging greater
scientific and other dialogues between and among and the peoples of
the region. Toward that end, a group of geoscientists formed
HIGH-ICE (Himalayan Institutes for Glacier, Hydrology, Ice, Climate
and Environment), a scientific group dedicated to studies of those
increasingly important issues in High Asia.
"Although obviously weighted towards the physical geosciences
because of our special interests, our group wishes to encourage
greater dialogue with those Fulbrighters who might be similarly
interested," says Shroder. "Perhaps in a small way at least, our
collective efforts can enable development of some new approaches to
helping increase peace in South Asia." This would seem to be a very
natural offshoot of what Fulbright is all about. HIGH-ICE will hold
organizational meetings in San Francisco in late 2003, and in
Seattle and Philadelphia in 2004. For further details, please
contact Dr. Shroder at the University of Nebraska at Omaha
Geography/Geology Department (jshroder@mail.unomaha.edu).
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Some thoughts on Science and War |
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| Demographic researchers say that there are over
6.3 billion people in the world -- Demographers estimate that we
passed the 6,000,000,000 mark four years and one month ago, on July
21, 1999. Scientific and technical advances have made the explosion
in human population possible, but huge conflicts exist among the
peoples of the world. Here are two quotes that are decades old, but
remain relevant in guiding the work of scientists today.
"Science has radically changed the conditions of human life on
earth. It has expanded our knowledge and our power, but not our
capacity to use them with wisdom." >From Senator J. William
Fulbright's 1964 book, "Old Myths and New Realities"
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket
fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger
and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world
in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its
laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children...
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud
of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."
From the Chance for Peace address delivered by President Eisenhower
before the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 16, 1953.
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United Nations Millennium Development Goals |
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 As part of the
millennium celebration all 191 members of the United Nations have
pledged to meet eight goals by the year 2015. In our May newsletter,
we wrote about wrote about one Fulbrighter's efforts to improve UN
Goal #5: Improve Maternal Health. The June and July issues contained
stories about UN Goal #7: Ensure environmental sustainability.
Many members of the Fulbright family are carrying out work that
will help our global society acheive the eight goals. We look
forward to working with key partners around the world that will help
acheive the UN Millennium Development Goals, and participation is
not limited to those who work the academic community. On July 25th,
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (a Fulbrighter himself) launched the
Commission on Private Sector and Development, whose mission is to
foster the millennium development goals.
In launching the Commission, Dr. Annan said, "Ranging from
halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and
providing universal primary education -- all by the target date of
2015 -- the Millennium Development Goals represent a set of simple
but powerful objectives that every man or woman in the street, from
New York to Nairobi to New Delhi, can easily understand and
support." Click on the banner above to link with the Millennium
website.
The 2004 Equator Prize is a related international project. The
prize brings global attention on local success stories that have
reduced poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of
biodiversity (Development Goal #7). Six outstanding grassroots
initiatives from throughout the equatorial belt will each receive
the US$30,000 prize, and 25 prize finalists are given a chance to
share the lessons of their experience with the wider world. It is
sponsored by nine organizations, including the UN Development
Program, the UN Foundation, the World Conservation Union, and the
Nature Conservancy. The Fulbright Academy is pleased to be involved
in the international efforts to promote the award. The deadline for
nominations in October 5, 2003. www.undp.org/equatorinitiative/
More on the Millennium
Initiative »
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Seeking Teachers for Exchanges |
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| Fulbright Teacher and Administrator Exchange is
often seeking applications from U.S. school administrators at the
elementary, middle, and high school levels to participate in a
two-way, non-simultaneous exchange program with counterparts from
many countries around the world.
For example, we recently received a note from the exchange office
that they are seeking people to participate in exchanges in
Argentina (see web link below). The U.S. administrators would be
expected to host the Argentine administrators for three weeks in
November 2003 and travel to Argentina for three weeks in 2004.
Spanish fluency is preferred, but not required. The final deadline
for applying to the Argentina program is September 5.
For information about this program or any of the other school
exchange programs, please call (202) 314-3520 or e-mail
fulbright@grad.usda.gov for a program application.
More
on teacher exchanges. »
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Time, Physics & Quantum Mechanics |
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 It is amazing that in
spite of the many achievements that physics has brought to mankind
through its ability to predict how practical systems would work, its
fundamental conceptual structure is not on good footing. Doing
research in this area where physics, mathematics, and astronomy
intersect, Fulbrighter Jorge Pullin spent three months in
Montevideo, Uruguay.
Dr. Jorge Pullin's main interests are black hole collisions and
quantum gravity. He is the Horace Hearne Chair in Theoretical
Physics at Louisania State University and is a leader of the
American Physical Society's Topical Group in Gravitation.
What brought him on a Fulbright to Montevideo is his long time
collaborator Dr. Rodolfo Gambini, a professor at the University of
the Republic in Uruguay. Gambini has a long history of contributions
in quantum physics. What Gambini and Pullin are studying is the
mathematical equations that result from combining the ides of
Einstein with those of quantum mechanics. Their proposal for
resolving these difficulties consists in replacing Einstein's theory
by a similar theory where space-time, at microscopic scales, has a
discrete structure.
There is significant work to be done when one proposes a
reformulation of the laws of nature of this sort, checking that the
resulting theory does not lead to wrong predictions. In quantum
mechanics, we talk of "probability" -- the chance of something
happening in the future. Which implictly means that we are making
statements about time. But Einstein taught us that time is relative.
Therefore what is the meaning of the probabilities of quantum
mechanics? At the moment, we do not know because the two theories
are not entirely compatible. Hence the need for more research.
Dr. Pullin's
Webpage »
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Fulbright Association Annual Meeting |
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| The Fulbright Association -- which has no
official ties with the Fulbright Academy of Science & Technology
-- hosts the largest annual gathering of Fulbrighters. This year,
the Association's 26th annual conference will be on Halloween
Weekend in Washington, DC.
"Fulbright Exchanges: Advancing Knowledge &
Mutual Understanding" will be held at the Madison Hotel on Oct. 30
to Nov. 2. The keynote speaker at the banquet on Friday evening will
be Rep. Tom Cole -- a long-time public servant in Oklahoma, a
first-term member of Congress from that state, an enrolled member of
the Chickasaw Nation, a former professor of History, and a
Fulbrighter to the United Kingdom in 1977.
Academy members will be interested to hear the
plenary luncheon speaker. Mireya Mayor is a primatologist who went on a
Fulbright to Madagascar in 2001. She was there to study how two
types of lemurs found only in northern Madagascar-silky sifakas and
Perrier's sifakas- are affected by forest fragmentation and
isolation. Both sifakas are among the most critically endangered
primates in the world. "Lemur Rescue," a National Geographic
EXPLORER film on Mireya Mayor and her research, will air Sunday,
September 22, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on MSNBC. 
The plenary lunch is on Saturday and will be
preceded by a ninety-minute panel discussion on water resources. The
members of the panel have not been finalized at this time. To
register for the plenary luncheon ($50) or the three-day conference
($275), please contact the Fulbright Association at 202-347- 5543 or
visit their website, www.fulbrightalumni.org
A link to the
Fulbright Association »
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Educational Outreach & Sponsors |
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 Do you have an
initiative that could benefit from a partnership with the Fulbright
Academy? Can we help promote one of your programs or the results of
your work? Through our networks we can bring your work and your
message to new constituencies.
In this issue, we wrote about new multidisciplinary research,
various international initativies, and upcoming conferences. Please
tell us how we can help you, and send us your story. We want to
share your plans, your successes and your intellectual contributions
with others.
The Academy continues to work on developing partnerships with
businesses and organizations around the world. In July, the Academy
recieved three small grants to help support our outreach activities.
Additional support is needed, so please consider joining as an
individual or as an organization. The links to our website are
below.
To make a
donation »
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