Pitt Engineering Professor Receives Fulbright Scholar Award

PITTSBURGH—Radisav Vidic, a professor and William Kepler Whiteford Fellow in the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will share his expertise in water pollution control during a Fulbright Scholars visit to the University of Belgrade in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the 2003-2004 academic year.

Vidic was selected for the award, which is administered by the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, for his "academic and professional achievement and because he has demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential in his field," according to information supplied by the Fulbright Scholars Program.

During his visit, Vidic will help the University of Belgrade improve and modernize the environmental engineering and science curricula in the school's Faculty of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, and Faculty of Chemistry.

The Fulbright U.S. Scholars Program suspended the exchange program between the United States and Yugoslavia for a decade. Vidic's award, one of the first Fulbright awards to that country since the suspension was lifted last year, will serve to rebuild scientific and engineering collaboration between the United States and Yugoslavia.

Vidic is one of approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad to some 140 countries for the 2003-2004 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 Scholar Program, America's flagship international educational exchange activity, is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State. During its 56 years of existence, thousands of U.S. faculty and professionals have studied, taught, or conducted research abroad, and thousands of their counterparts from other countries have engaged in similar activities in the United States. They are among more than 250,000 American and foreign university students, K-12 teachers, and university faculty and professionals who have participated in one of the several Fulbright programs.

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