Vietnam Education Foundation Sponsors U.S. Faculty Scholars to Teach in Vietnam

HANOI, Vietnam, and WASHINGTON, July 18, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) is pleased to announce the selection of the fourth group of American professors to teach at Vietnamese universities during the 2011-2012 Academic Year as part of its U.S. Faculty Scholar (USFS) Grant Program.

The U.S. Faculty Scholar Program contributes to the VEF mission of bringing the United States and Vietnam closer together through educational exchanges related to science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and technology. U.S. Faculty Scholars teach in English at Vietnamese universities in their fields of expertise. Teaching may be conducted either on-site in Vietnam or by interactive, real-time videoconferencing from the United States. VEF serves as the sponsor and organizer while the Vietnamese universities serve as the hosts and the U.S. universities cooperate in the collaborative programs. This year the U.S. National Academies assisted VEF in the selection of Faculty Scholars.

Virginia Palmer, the U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission to Vietnam, affirmed: "The VEF U.S. Faculty Scholar Program is an outstanding U.S. government program, which reflects one of our Mission's top priorities of enhancing American cooperation with Vietnam in the area of education. I believe it will also serve to support Vietnam's efforts to further reform and develop its higher education system."

The Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Dr. Hoang van Phong, acknowledged: "The U.S. Faculty Scholar Program is an excellent initiative of VEF and will have significant effects in promoting cooperation between Vietnam and the United States. MOST greatly appreciates VEF's efforts in continuing to contribute to the development of science and technology in Vietnam."

VEF has provided grants to eleven U.S. Faculty Scholars since 2008. Now, VEF is pleased to support six more American professors, each of whom will lead different teaching projects in Vietnam this year under the USFS Program.

Dr. Jay Bagga is a Professor at Ball State University. In 2000, he was a Senior U.S. Fulbright Scholar at the University of Zimbabwe where he developed an Master of Science program in computer science. Dr. Bagga will be teaching from the United States using video-conferencing to teach at the University of Engineering and Technology, Vietnam National University in Hanoi, for the Fall 2011 academic term. Dr. Bagga's field of expertise is computer science and he will be teaching a course entitled Graph, Algorithms, and Mobile Programming (iPhone) Applications.

Dr. Diane M. Dewar, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy, Management and Behavior, at the University at Albany, State University of New York, will be teaching from the United States using video-conferencing to teach at the Hanoi Medical University for the Fall 2011 academic term. Dr. Dewar's fields of expertise are public health and health policy, and she will be teaching a course entitled Introduction to Public Health.

Dr. Marc Garbey, Professor, at the University of Houston, Texas, will be teaching from the United States using video-conferencing to teach at the International University, Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City, during the Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 academic terms. Dr. Garbey's fields of expertise are applied mathematics, computer science, and computational medicine and he will be team-teaching a course entitled Computational Surgery: Modeling and Simulation.

Dr. Mark Rosenfeld, Professor Emeritus, at the University of Washington, Tacoma, will be teaching on-site at the University of Science, Vietnam National University in Hanoi, during the Fall 2011 academic term. Dr. Rosenfeld's fields of expertise are mathematics and computer science and he will be teaching a course entitled Discrete Optimization.

Dr. Cyrus Shahabi, Professor of Computer Science and Director of the NSF's Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC) at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California, will be teaching at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology using webcasting and video-conferencing from the United States during the Fall 2011 academic term. Dr. Shahabi's field of expertise is information technology and he will be teaching a course entitled Geospatial Information Management.

Dr. Carl Philip Weiner, K.E. Krantz Professor and Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Professor of Integrative and Molecular Physiology, University of Kansas School of Medicine, and Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Kansas School of Pharmacy, will be teaching from the United States using video-conferencing to teach at the Hue College of Medicine and Pharmacy during the Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 academic terms. Dr. Weiner's fields of expertise are obstetrics and gynecology, perinatal medicine, and clinical and basic research, and he will be teaching a course entitled Advanced Maternal and Fetal Medicine.

The Vice Minister of Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), Prof. Dr. Bui Van Ga, said: "MOET fully supports and highly appreciates the U.S. Faculty Scholar (USFS) Program initiated by VEF. We are glad to learn that VEF has selected six American professors for the 2011 Cohort of Faculty Scholars. The contribution of the USFS Program to advancing sustainable collaboration between U.S. and Vietnamese universities is invaluable to the development and growth of Vietnam".

Dr. Lynne McNamara, VEF Executive Director, stated: "An excellent example of American and Vietnamese university collaboration, the U.S. Faculty Scholar Grant Program is a significant initiative of VEF, bringing outstanding American experts to teach at Vietnamese universities. Without a doubt, the USFS Grant Program will have a lasting impact on higher education in Vietnam."

The Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF), a U.S. federal government agency, is in its ninth year of operations. Among its other programs, the VEF Fellowship Program has placed 382 Fellows at 82 top U.S. graduate research institutions, mostly for doctoral degrees. Since 2007 the VEF Visiting Scholar Program has provided opportunities for 32 Vietnamese to pursue post-doctoral programs at U.S. universities for up to 12 months. VEF Fellows and Visiting Scholars are required to return to Vietnam after completing their academic programs in the United States.

For more information on VEF, please visit: www.vef.gov.

SOURCE Vietnam Education Foundation