Published: April 5, 2006

Keith R. Molenaar, assistant professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture and conduct research at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, in Santiago, Chile during the 2006-2007 academic year, according to the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Dr. Molenaar will lecture in civil engineering courses, conduct research in construction engineering and management, and provide opportunities for Chilean students to participate in the University of Colorado's Earth Systems Engineering and Engineering for Developing Communities initiatives.

Dr. Molenaar is one of approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad to some 150 countries for the 2006-2007 academic year through the Fulbright Scholar Program. Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program's purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries.

The Fulbright Program, America's flagship international educational exchange activity, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Over its 60 years of existence, thousands of U.S. faculty and professionals have studied, taught or done research abroad, and thousands of their counterparts from other countries have engaged in similar activities in the U.S. They are among more than 266,600 American and foreign university students, K-12 teachers, and university faculty and professionals who have participated in Fulbright exchange programs.

Recipients of Fulbright Scholar awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and because they have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential in their fields. Among thousands of prominent Fulbright Scholar alumni are Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize-winning economist; Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet; and Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel Corporation.

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For further information about the Fulbright Scholar Program, please contact Teresa Liao, communications specialist, Council for International Exchange of Scholars. Telephone: 202.686.7869

E-mail: tliao@cies.iie.org Web site: