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

HANOI, Vietnam and WASHINGTON, July 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) is pleased to announce the selection of the third group of American professors to teach at Vietnamese universities during the 2010-2011 Academic Year as part of its U.S. Faculty Scholar (USFS) Grant Program.

The USFS Grant 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. The U.S. National Academies assists VEF in the selection of Faculty Scholars.

Michael W. Michalak, the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam said: "The VEF U.S. Faculty Scholar Program is an outstanding U.S. government funded 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."

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

Dr. Quyen D. Chu, M.D., F.A.C.S., Associate Professor, at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport, will be teaching from the United States using video-conferencing to Thai Binh Medical University in Thai Binh during the Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 academic terms.  Dr. Chu's field of expertise is surgery and he will be teaching a course entitled Multidisciplinary Approach in Managing Breast Cancer.  This will be Dr. Chu's second award from VEF as a U.S. Faculty Scholar teaching in Vietnam.  

Dr. Timothy J. Craig, Professor, at Pennsylvania State University, will be teaching on site at the National Lung Hospital in Hanoi during the academic year 2010-2011.  Dr. Craig's field of expertise is medicine, allergy, asthma, and immunology and he will be teaching a course entitled Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Program

Dr. James F. Cremer, Professor and Chair of the Computer Science Department, at the University of Iowa, will be teaching on site at the Hanoi University of Technology in Hanoi during the Spring term 2011.  Dr. Cremer's field of expertise is computer science and he will be teaching a course entitled Data Structures and Algorithms.

Dr. Erik V. Nordheim, Professor, at the University of Wisconsin in the Department of Statistics, will be teaching from the United States using video-conferencing to teach at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Science for the Fall 2010 term.  Dr. Nordheim's field of specialty is applied statistics and he will be teaching a course entitled Introductory Applied Statistics (with emphasis on applications to biology).

Dr. Sally Carol Seidel, Professor, at the University of New Mexico, will be teaching from the United States using video-conferencing to teach at the Institute of Physics at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) for the Spring term 2011.  Dr. Seidel's field of expertise is physics and she will be teaching two courses entitled Quantum Mechanics and Particle Physics.  

The Vice Minister of Science and Technology (MOST), Dr. Le Dinh Tien, said: "The U.S. Faculty Scholar Program is an excellent initiative of VEF and will have significant effects. MOST greatly appreciates VEF's efforts in continuing to contribute to the development of science and technology in Vietnam."

The Director General of the Vietnam International Education Development, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Vang of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), said: "MOET fully supports the U.S. Faculty Scholar (USFS) Program initiated by VEF. We are pleased that the third group of five American professors has been selected under the USFS Program of Cohort 2010. The USFS Program has supported a number of Vietnamese universities in their efforts to establish advanced programs and sustainable collaboration between U.S. and Vietnamese universities."

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 eighth year of operations. Among its other programs, the VEF Fellowship Program has placed 342 Fellows at 76 top U.S. graduate research institutions, mostly for doctoral degrees. Since 2007 the VEF Visiting Scholar Program has provided opportunities for 29 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