Fallon's enthusiasm for helping his African colleagues build their lab captures the essence of the 43-year-old, federally funded Fulbright Scholar Program, the venerable system of grants bringing together researchers from different countries for scholarly exchanges.
Since the first "Fulbrighters" began their travel in the fall of 1948 in exchanges with China, Burma, and the Philippines, the Fulbright program has mushroomed into a globe-girdling enterprise. More than 186,000 Fulbright scholars--about 56,000 students and professionals from the United States and 130,000 from other nations--have journeyed to 130 countries around the world on grants that range from two months to an academic year.
It's impossible to quantify how much the Fulbright grants have contributed over the decades to enhancing international understanding and breeding a worldwide community of scholars. One gauge of the program's impact, however, is the impressive roster of Fulbright alumni, both in the U.S. and abroad, which reads like a Who's ...
