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Chad Austin, News Services, 919/515-3470

May 13, 2005

Two NC State Faculty Members Receive Fulbright Grants

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dr. Gary Blank

North Carolina State University faculty members Dr. Gary Blank, associate professor of forestry, and Dr. Oliver Williams, professor of political science, have received Fulbright Scholar grants to study and teach abroad during the 2005-06 academic year.

Fulbright grants are awarded each year to leading researchers, teachers and administrators at universities worldwide, allowing the recipients to travel, conduct research and teach abroad at host universities for up to one year.

Blank will lecture on environmental impact assessment and historical environments at the Mendel and Masaryck Universities, Brno, Czech Republic. The grant’s four-month term begins Feb. 1, 2006. Blank researches historical environmental data in order to determine how past resource usage affected various environments. This information can help predict what impact human development will have on particular habitats and environments in the future. Blank received his bachelor’s degree in English from Frostburg State University in 1972, and his doctorate in forestry from NC State in 1992. He joined the NC State forestry and environmental resources department in 1979.

Dr. Oliver Williams

Williams will study the effects of economic change on political development with a team of scholars at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. While there, he will video conference lectures from Hong Kong to his Chinese politics class at NC State. Williams’ assignment is his second Fulbright grant, and his appointment runs from January to August 2006. His research interests include the political and economic transition of Hong Kong and the implementation of civil service reform in China. Williams earned his bachelor’s degree from East Carolina University and his master’s and doctorate from UNC-Chapel Hill.

The Fulbright Scholar Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and is the most prestigious international exchange program for scholars. Since its inception in 1946, approximately 88,000 U.S. and foreign scholars have participated in the program.

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