Workshop Focuses on International Research Funding Opportunities

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The registration deadline for the second installment in a series of workshops dedicated to the University of Arkansas research enterprise is Wednesday, Oct. 14.

The session, titled, “Go Global: International Funding and Collaboration Opportunities,” is scheduled for 3-5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 23 in Old Main, Room 523. 

The workshop features professors who have had success in earning international monies for research and/or forging productive collaborations with research partners outside of the United States. It is designed to benefit faculty at every level, from recent graduates to advanced researchers, as well as colleagues from every college at the U of A.

The J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, Honors College, and Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Economic Development are hosting the workshop series.

The workshop will focus on tips and strategies for looking abroad to foreign governments, international foundations and agencies for research grants and collaboration opportunities.

The theme reflects the international profile of many of the university's faculty members.

“U.S. federal funding sources have declined over the last several years but international sources continue to grow,” said Kathryn Sloan, associate dean of Fulbright College and the workshop’s organizer. “Scholars ought to consider looking abroad for resources – both human and capital – to advance their research agendas.”

The event will showcase faculty members from Fulbright College and the College of Engineering who have succeeded in forging international partnerships in research and/or securing international funding for their scholarly endeavors.

For more information on the workshop, e-mail Sloan at ksloan@uark.edu.

To register, contact Debbie Power at dlpower@uark.edu or 479-575-3784 no later than 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 14. Seating is limited to 40 participants.

PRESENTERS

Laurent Bellaiche is a Distinguished Professor and holder of the Twenty-First Century Professorship in Nanotechnology and Science Education in the Department of Physics in Fulbright College. Bellaiche is a leading member of the U of A’s Computational Condensed Matter Physics Group.

Bellaiche specializes in the prediction, design, and optimization of properties of semiconductors and ferroelectric materials. He and his research group have extensive collaborative relationships with researchers in more than 10 countries, including France, Spain, China and the Czech Republic.

Bellaiche, a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s prestigious Career Award in 2000, earned his doctorate at the University of France and held positions at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado and Rutgers University before joining the University of Arkansas in 1999.

Magda O. El-Shenawee is professor of electrical engineering in the College of Engineering who is in leading an NSF-funded terahertz imaging and spectroscopy system that is carrying out breast cancer detection research. The system supports non-destructive, non-hazardous, and non-invasive imaging applications in engineering, medical, and biological sciences.

Her collaborators include U of A professors and researchers in England, Scotland and France. El-Shenawee has also developed techniques for land mine detection. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering at Assiut University in Egypt and her doctorate in electrical engineering at the University of Nebraska. Before coming to the U of A in 2001, El-Shenawee was a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northeastern University.

J. Laurence Hare is an associate professor of history and director of international studies and co-director of European studies in the Department of History in Fulbright College. An Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation Fellow, Hare specializes in the intellectual and cultural history of modern Germany and Scandinavia.

Hare is the author of Excavating Nations: Archaeology, Museums, and the German-Danish Borderlands (University of Toronto Press, 2015). Humboldt Foundation funds and the Aurora Borealis Prize from the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study supported his book project.

Hare earned his bachelor’s in history and anthropology at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga and his master’s and doctorate in history from the University of North Carolina before joining the U of A in 2010.