UCLA Global, October 2, 2024 — Four UCLA professors have to date received Fulbright Specialist Awards in 2024: Anne Andrews and Suzanne Paulson of the Division of Physical Sciences of UCLA College, Mark Kaplan of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and Kathleen Ruchalski, MD, of the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Established in 2001, Fulbright Specialist Awards differ from Fulbright Fellowships and teaching awards in that they fund short-term projects and knowledge exchange visits rather than academic year–long exchanges or research projects. The program pairs highly qualified U.S. academics and professionals with host institutions abroad to share their expertise, strengthen institutional linkages and gain international experience for a period of two to six weeks. Awards are issued several times a year, based on a fixed schedule of application dates.
Andrews, professor of psychiatry and member, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, traveled to the Czech Republic in March 2024 to share her expertise in neuroscience and participate in a project at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
During her stay, the specialist in wearable sensors delivered a lecture during Czech Brain Awareness Week, met with students and engaged in scientific collaborations with Czech colleagues. Her visit there was captured in an interview with the Czech edition of Wired, in which she stressed the need for good mental health hygiene and observed that extensive links between neurotechnology and human beings were already taking place via smart phones.
Kaplan, professor emeritus of social welfare and a faculty affiliate at the California Center for Population Research, will travel to Canada in October 2024 to work with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. The center comprises a psychiatric teaching hospital in Toronto and ten community centers throughout the province of Ontario. An expert in suicide risk and prevention, Kaplan has also been principal investigator on recent two research projects funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
The recent award is Kaplan’s fourth Fulbright specialist award, following three previous grants that supported collaborations with the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (2022), the Public Health Agency of Canada (2020) and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden (2011).
Paulson, professor, department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and director, Center for Clean Air, UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, traveled to Sénégal in March 2024 to share her expertise in particulate pollution and its measurement and to assist in a workshop at Alioune Diop University.
At the workshop, Paulson worked with scientists from 20 countries of Africa to build low-cost air quality sensors. Commercially available sensors sell for a minimum of US$ 250, but contain only roughly US$ 40 in parts, a more accessible price point. Paulson will return to Sénégal in November to continue working with African scientists on air monitoring devices and practices, when she will complete her Fulbright Specialist award.
Paulson is currently working on two research projects related to her visit, each of which include UCLA undergraduate researchers and are expected to result in research papers. The first is an analysis of air quality measurements made by the UCLA professor in March. The second project aims to conduct a survey of the state of the research literature related to air quality in Africa.
Ruchalski, assistant professor of radiological sciences at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, traveled to the National Cancer Center of Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar in April 2024 to conduct a radiology expert training program focused on cancer imaging. A specialist in abdominal and thoracic imaging, Ruchalski and radiologists at the Cancer Center together engaged in case review and reading room teaching. The UCLA doctor also delivered three lectures on lung cancer imaging for the Mongolia Society of Radiology.
During her month-long stay, Ruchalski observed multiple meetings of multidisciplinary cancer boards at the Cancer Center and visited other hospitals in Ulaanbaatar, learning about the country’s medical education system and medical infrastructure. Of note, she facilitated complementary memberships in the Radiological Society of North America for all radiologists in Mongolia, which has the highest rate of cancer mortality in the world.