Yearly Archives:

2016

U.S. Fulbright

Detecting Gravitational Waves at Home and Abroad

April 26, 2016
Dan Hoak

Daniel Hoak, 2015-2016, Italy

Two months ago, physicists around the world were set ‘chirping’ with the announcement that gravitational waves had been detected for the first time. The detection is the culmination of decades of work, and it represents the beginning of a new era in astronomy.

I’ve been a member of the team that made the detection since 2005, when I joined the staff of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in Livingston, Louisiana. Later, I went to grad school at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where I earned my Ph.D. last fall. My doctoral research focused on data analysis with gravitational wave detectors, and I assisted with upgrades to the LIGO facility in Hanford, Washington that made the detection possible.

For my Fulbright research, I’m helping to upgrade the Virgo detector, an experiment located outside of Pisa, Italy. Using a third detector to listen for gravitational waves will improve the science tremendously: we’ll be able to detect weaker signals, across more of the sky, and work out their position and properties with greater accuracy.

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U.S. Fulbright

From Apia to Paris: Combating Climate Change as a Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellow

April 22, 2016
Marie-Claire-1

Marie-Claire Tuzeneu, 2014-2015, Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellow to Samoa, attending the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris with the Samoan Delegation – the perfect conclusion to her Fellowship with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

In honor of Earth Day and the United Nations’ Climate Signing Ceremony, we are sharing Fulbright-Clinton alumna to Samoa Marie-Claire Tuzeneu’s testimonial of attending the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) last December.

Do you have a story to share about how you’re celebrating Earth Day today on your Fulbright grant? Send them here or share them on Twitter using hashtags #Fulbright and #earthday2016.

As a Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellow, I was placed with the Samoan Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE). A central part of my Fellowship was finalizing a review of Samoa’s climate change policies and programs and helping lay the groundwork for a new Climate Change Bill. This Bill will provide an official mandate for climate change work in Samoa and clearly delineate the roles and responsibilities of key government ministries. Finally, several months after completing my fellowship, I was able to rejoin my Samoan colleagues in Paris for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21), assisting the delegation by preparing remarks, taking notes during initial negotiations, and conducting background research.

My time at MNRE gave me a direct look at some of the challenges countries face when using external funding from sources such as the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for national and local development projects. I was also able to learn some of the detailed steps involved in managing one of these projects, from holding an opening workshop, to hiring project staff and consultants, procuring equipment, and preparing annual and completion reports. And I was able to make more general observations about the day-to-day running of a Ministry. I now know, for example, that in Samoan Ministries, email is not used as extensively as for communications in the United States. For example, important inter-ministerial communications are often printed with a cover letter and distributed by courier.

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Enrichment Foreign Fulbright

Highlights from the 2016 Washington, DC Fulbright Enrichment Seminar

April 21, 2016
DC Seminar 2016

A panoramic view of the World War II Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, DC taken during the seminar bus tour

For nearly 30 years as a U.S. Senator representing Arkansas, J. William Fulbright called Washington, DC his home.

A city of tremendous power, wealth, and intelligence also grappling with trials of corruption, inefficiency, and a tumultuous political and media landscape, within the heart of the nation’s capital the senator worked tirelessly to establish an international exchange program which would eventually bear his name: The Fulbright Program.

From April 13 – 17, 2016, over 130 foreign Fulbrighters hailing from nearly 65 countries continued this legacy imparted by the late Senator and immersed themselves in the allure and charm of Washington, DC. In discussion they challenged each other’s thoughts around the topic of “U.S. Elections and Media” and “Polarization and U.S. Politics.” In service they took to the streets and streams of the DMV (District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia) zones to participate in the Annual Potomac Watershed Clean Up in partnership with the Alice Ferguson Foundation. And in community they came together in a memorable U.S. Election Simulation Workshop to demonstrate vast political knowledge and prowess under real pressure.

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U.S. Fulbright

Learning About Diversity in Malaysia

April 19, 2016
Kacy

Kacy Rauschenberger, 2015-2016, Fulbright ETA to Malaysia and Reach the World Traveler (right)

In partnership with Reach the World (RTW), the Fulbright U.S. Student Program is publishing a series of articles written by Fulbright English Teaching Assistants participating in Reach the World’s Traveler correspondents program, which through its interactive website, enriches the curriculum of elementary and secondary classrooms (primarily located in New York City but also nationwide) by connecting them to the experiences of volunteer Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) and other world travelers who are currently studying and living abroad. 

During my eight weeks in Malaysia on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship, I have been thinking a lot about the meaning of the word “diversity.” In the United States, we consider our society to be a diverse “melting pot” of all types of races, religions, cultures, and ethnicities. This means it is common for people in the U.S. to identity with multiple cultures and countries. For example, my roommate Carlina is Chinese-American. Both of Carlina’s parents are from China but she is a first generation American citizen because she was born in the U.S. Carlina’s first language was English but she can also speak Mandarin Chinese with her parents and grandparents. Carlina is an American citizen but she practices traditions from American and Chinese cultures! Can you think of anyone you know in the U.S. that can speak another language or whose parents are from another country?

Diversity in Malaysia, however, does not mean the same thing that it does in the U.S. There are only three main ethnic groups in Malaysia: Malay, Chinese, and Indian.  Even though Malaysia considers itself to be a diverse country, these three ethnic groups do not often mix in society. In many cases, there are separate schools for all three of these groups based on the language or religion that each cultural group speaks or practices.

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Enrichment Foreign Fulbright

Hills, Coal and Storytelling: Appalachian Culture in a Changing World

April 14, 2016
Raffaella

Raffaella Taylor-Seymour, 2015-2019, United Kingdom

A few days before I traveled to Williamson, West Virginia, I was speaking to a university friend from Chicago about visiting the Appalachian region. He told me that his uncle passed through eastern Kentucky, just across the Tug River from Williamson, in the early seventies. When he stopped to ask which was the best route back to Chicago, an old man by the side of the road paused and said, ‘oh, I don’t think you can get to there from here.’ This story somehow captures the sense of far away, and of inwardness, that reverberates through the American imaginary of rural Appalachia. It’s a region that has a mythical quality to outsiders, a place of coal, “hillbillies,” and bluegrass.

Appalachia keeps you grounded, close to the land and close to the people. Sustainable Williamson, the collective that hosted our congregation of Fulbright Amizade Students and alumni, is trying to reinvent centuries-old connections to the land. With the discovery of coal in the 1880s, Appalachia’s rolling hills became known as much for the riches they contained as for their quiet beauty. The earth here is quite literally coal-soaked; since the turn of the last century, billions of dollars worth of coal has been extracted and the commodity has become the mainstay of the local economy. Sustainable Williamson’s espousal of agriculture is an attempt to shift the region’s soul to the land’s surface, an echo of the hills’ nineteenth century agrarian existence before the discovery of black gold.

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