Dr. Norman Neureiter, a distinguished scientist, diplomat, and international business executive, will be a keynote speaker at our Annual Conference, to be held in Berlin in March 2006. He directs the Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy in Washington, DC. Based at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) it is funded by a $2.25 million grant and is part of a six-year, $50 million effort by the MacArthur Foundation to enhance the prospects for international peace and security. The program seeks to encourage information exchange between policymakers who need critical, reliable information - often on short notice - and the community of scientists and engineers who have such expertise.

Dr. Neureiter has strong Fulbright and international connections. Trained as an organic chemist at the University of Rochester (NY), he was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Munich, Germany in 1955-56 and then earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at Northwestern University. He joined the Foreign Service in 1965 and became the first U.S. science attaché in Eastern Europe in 1967. From 1969 to 1973, he served as the international affairs assistant in President Richard Nixon's Office of Science and Technology. He was at Texas Instruments from 1973-96, serving in his last years as the Vice President of Texas Instruments Asia. In 2000, he was named to a three-year term as science and technology adviser to the Secretary of State, serving under Secretary Madeleine Albright and Secretary Colin Powell.

You are invited to “Fulbrighters in Science," a conference in Berlin, Germany on Saturday and Sunday, March 4-5, 2006. Our program is designed for people in the natural and social sciences, economics, engineering, and technology, and for those whose personal or business interests relate to those fields. This conference will help you establish ties with alumni, current grantees, Fulbright hosts, and other international experts. The conference language is English.

The conference will be attended by 150 natural and social scientists, government officials, corporate executives, students, and retired professionals. Please visit our website for an updated list of individuals who have expressed interest in attending.

We chose Berlin because it is a leading center for natural science and social science research in Europe. On Saturday and Sunday morning, several conference attendees who are experts in their field will lead you on tours of nearby institutions, including the Fraunhofer Institute for Software & Systems Engineering, the new European School of Management & Technology, the Berlin Medical Historical Museum and the Pergamon Museum.

Berlin was also selected because the German-US exchange program is the largest of the Fulbright exchanges, with over 600 grantees participating each year. Our conference will be held immediately prior to the 52nd Annual Fulbright Seminar, a program organized by the German-American Fulbright Commission. FAST Conference attendees will participate in the opening reception of the seminar, which brings hundreds of current grantees to Berlin for four days of tours, programs, and fun.

The program is being done in collaboration with the German-American Fulbright Commission and with additional financial and organizational support from other partners and sponsors. If you or your organization would like to be a sponsor, please visit the conference website for details.

The early-bird discounted registration is 125 Euros ($152) for those who register before October 1. Current (2005-06) Fulbright grantees should visit the website for information on their discounts. For accommodations, you can reserve your room at the Park Inn Hotel through the Academy. Our discounted rate is 100 Euro/night (single or double).

If you would like to present at the conference, please submit an abstract via email at your earliest convenience. Conf@FulbrightAcademy.org

Here is an overview of selected upcoming events. FAST staff will be in Europe and Africa later this month, with formal programs in Belgium on Monday, September 19, and in Morocco on September 23-24. Individual meetings in Paris are also planned.

Our Fulbright Forum in Belgium on Monday 19 September begins with a late afternoon tour of the Laboratory of Plastic Surgery and Tissue Engineering Research at the KLU Leuven University Hospital. This institution is also hosting the European Congress for Scientists and Plastic Surgeons on 16-17 September. After the tour, we will meet with others at 5:00 at a local café. To register or for more information about either program (the Academy’s tour or the social hour), please contact FAST via email: conf@FulbrightAcademy.org Guests are welcome.

The Moroccan Fulbright Alumni Association is holding their second annual conference on 24 September in Rabat. The theme is “Turning Brain Drain into Brain Gain for Morocco,” and they are expecting a high-level participation from government, academia and representatives of private sectors, as well as representatives of American and European Fulbright Associations. Last year’s inaugural conference was attended by 150 people. The program is free to MFAA and FAST members, and there is a small fee for non-members. www.fulbright-alumni.ma

With the Fulbright Academy’s help, the Moroccan meeting has been linked with the European Researchers’ Night, a program funded by the EU to increase science literacy and public interest in scientific research. This pan-European event involves a wide range of scientific and research organizations – including museums, laboratories and academic institutions – hosting a variety of entertaining and fun events on the night of Friday, 23 September. The aim is to give the public, and in particular young people, the opportunity to meet researchers within the context of festive and fun activities and to highlight the appeal of pursuing a research career. As part of the program, FAST is hosting a dinner in Rabat and will be distributing free t-shirts and other materials.

In November, FAST staff and selected board members will be in Baltimore, Maryland, at the Annual Meeting of the Fulbright Association, the Washington-based organization dedicated to promoting the Fulbright program and enriching the experiences of visiting Fulbright students, teachers, and scholars. Information on their meeting is available on the Association’s website: www.fulbright.org

Our 2004 forum in Cambridge, Massachusetts was so successful that we are having a second annual program, this year in conjunction with the 15th Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony and Lecture Series. The Ig Nobel Prize is awarded by the Annals of Improbable Research and two Harvard-Radcliffe societies to recognize scientists and scientific research that is fun, interesting, and unusual. (www.ignobel.com)

The prize is given by actual Nobel Laureates at a ceremony before an audience of 1,200 in Sanders Theatre. FAST is organizing a small dinner in Cambridge for Fulbrighters and guests prior to the prize ceremony on Thursday evening, October 6. Confirmed dinner guests include Graham Stimpson (UK Fulbrighter at the MIT Chemistry Department); James Cowling (Australian Fulbrighter, also at MIT); Wendy Gordon (Professor of Law at Boston University); Jim Paisner (importer of French medical supplies) and his partner Alexandra (Researcher in the Psychopharmacology Lab at Mclean Hospital). We have 10 seats reserved and more can be ordered if there is demand.

The Ig Nobel Prize Lectures are at 1:00 pm on Saturday, October 8 at MIT, Building #10. The public lectures are always interesting and enjoyable, attended by 250-300 people. FAST is a lead sponsor for a reception after the lectures. If you aren’t free on Thursday night, please join us on Saturday afternoon for educational entertainment and fun.

If you are interested in attending the dinner & prize ceremony, please contact me immediately, as tickets to the Prize Ceremony sell out quickly. The tickets are $25 each, so with dinner, the cost will be around $50. The Saturday program is free and open to the public, no reservations are needed.

As background, the Academy's first Fulbright Forum, held in 2004 in Cambridge, was organized with assistance from E.O. Wilson and staff at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. Some 50 people attended, including scientists and researchers from five states and eight countries. Ninety minutes after the formal program ended, people were still talking over cheese, crackers and beer. We are hoping that this fall’s program will be equally successful.

Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, has joined as an institutional member. The school was founded in 1904 by the Augustinians of the Assumption, a religious order of men who were then conducting schools in other countries, particularly in France and Belgium. These international ties were very important and until the mid- 1950s, the enrollment was primarily Franco-American, and the curriculum was bilingual. Today, the school enrolls some 2,150 undergraduates and approximately 700 graduate and continuing education students. While most are from Massachusetts, its programs and facilities are attracting increasing international interest. For example, the new Richard and Janet Testa Science Center is home to the Department of Natural Sciences and features 5 multi-use classrooms with state-of-the-art technology, 10 teaching laboratories, 7 laboratories dedicated for faculty and student research, and a greenhouse.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has also joined as an institutional member. A statement about UNL will be in next month’s bulletin.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) also has a growing relationship with the Academy. Our board member, Dr. Bob George, has been attending AAAS meetings for over three decades and helped organize FAST programs at the AAAS Annual Meeting in 2004 and 2005. We are now preparing for the 2006 AAAS meeting in St. Louis on 16-20 February 2006, and the Center for International Education at Webster University in St. Louis has agreed to host an Academy program that week. A tour of a local research institution is also under development. www.aaasmeeting.org

AAAS has a free web-based magazine - “Next Wave” – which focuses on issues of interest to the next wave of scientists, namely students and post docs. It has been published weekly since 1995. AAAS also produces “Science Now” - daily updates of interesting developments in science that can be emailed to your computer (http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org).

The Zambia Fulbright Humphrey Alumni Association (ZFHAA) is up and running. More than 27 members registered at the inauguration ceremony held in the capital, Lusaka, on June 23, 2005. The association president said the association was now ready to start working on projects that would benefit the society and encourage young Zambians to aspire for higher heights in their academic and professional pursuits. The leaders include University of Zambia School of Medicine Senior Lecturer Dr. Cecilia Shinondo (President), Geology Professor Imasiku Nyambe (Vice President), OneWorld Africa Editor Mr. Gerald Mwale (Secretary), Astronomy/physics grantee Mr Oswald Mungule (Treasurer), and Export Board of Zambia trade information manager Mr Daniel Mumba (Committee member).

Senator Fulbright's face on the cover of Time Magazine was a symbol of his achievements. Here are some updates about Fulbrighters in science & technology fields who are successful and doing interesting work today.

FAST member Dr. David Swanson directs the Center for Population Studies at the University of Mississippi. As a way to assist policy makers and disaster relief efforts in Mississippi, the Center has assembled data from the 2000 census in order to provide demographic, social, economic, and housing information about the counties in Mississippi prior to being impacted by Hurricane Katrina. www.olemiss.edu/depts/population_studies/Katrina/

On September 1, 2005, Swedish Fulbrighter Gunnar Lund will assume the post of Ambassador to the United States. Lund earned a master’s degree in economics and international law at Columbia University, in New York in 1972 as a Fulbrighter. In 1988, Lund was given his first political assignment when he was appointed Deputy Finance Minister (State Secretary) with responsibility for budget, economic policy and international affairs. Since then he has served in several positions, including Deputy Foreign Minister (State Secretary) for European Affairs and Ambassador to the European Union. In 2002 he was appointed Minister and Member of the Swedish Cabinet with responsibility for international economic and financial affairs as well as for public administration.

Dr. Olman Segura is the new rector of Costa Rica’s National University (UNA). Dr. Segura received his BA in Social Science under the Fulbright program from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. Prior to his election as rector, Mr. Segura directed UNA’s International Center for Political and Economic Sustainable Development. His predecessor as rector was also a Fulbrighter.

Dr. Peter Coaldrake, Queensland University of Technology's Vice-Chancellor, was elected Chair to the Board of the Australian-American Fulbright Commission for 2005. A two-time Fulbright scholar, Professor Coaldrake has extensive executive management experience spanning both the university and government sectors. Professor Coaldrake has also published widely in the fields of politics and higher education policy and practice.

Dr. Sergio Rezende, a Fulbright grantee in 1963, was named Brazilian Minister of Science and Technology. Formerly president of a government agency financing scientific research, Rezende received his masters and doctorate at MIT in electrical engineering and has worked as a professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco, as secretary of Science and Technology in the state of Pernambuco and as secretary of Patrimony, Science and Culture in the city of Olinda.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve as part of a world network of sites in which local communities are actively involved in environmental conservation thanks to work of three Fulbrighters. The first Chilean biosphere reserve declared since 1984, it is located in Chile’s Antarctic Province and comprises marine areas, islands and forested coast. Dr. Ricardo Rozzi, who led the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve Initiative, is a Chilean Fulbright alumnus who completed his Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut in 2001. Christopher Anderson came to Chile as a Fulbright scholar in 2003 and is now completing his Ph.D. at the University of Georgia. Juan Harcha currently is studying international law at the University of Georgia as a Chilean Fulbrighter. Rozzi and Anderson helped to co-found the Omora Ethnobotanical Park, which led the effort to create the biosphere reserve and conducts biocultural researc h, education and conservation activities in the Cape Horn area. The three Fulbrighters began working to win the UNESCO designation in 2002.

The Fulbright Academy is an independent non-profit organization that serves scientists, executives, and scholars worldwide. We receive organizational and financial support from institutional and individual members, selected Fulbright alumni groups and commissions, corporations, foundations, and other entities interested in developing an international network of leaders in science and technology. Our definition of science is quite broad -- it includes social, natural and life sciences as well as disciplines/professions that require scientific knowledge. We are not affiliated with the US State Department, the US Fulbright Association or the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

FAST uses the expertise of our network of Fulbright alumni and other leaders in science to address critical problems in education, scientific innovation and economic development. We interact with thousands of Fulbrighters and scientists around the world.

Academy projects are funded by contracts, grants, sponsorships, and donations from those who share our mission. Membership income is an important part of our annual budget; if you or your institution is not a member, please join today. Individual memberships start at $15.