Three earn first Weiser fellowships

Three faculty members have received fellowship awards to conduct research in the Slovak Republic, while three Slovak scholars will travel to U-M.

The Ronald and Eileen Weiser Professional Development Fellowship Awards for 2006, awarded through the Center for Russian and East European Studies, were established in 2004 through a five-year gift from Ronald Weiser, U.S. ambassador to Slovakia from 2001-04, and his wife, Eileen Lappin Weiser.

The short-term travel awards are designed to stimulate collaborations in research and teaching between higher education faculty and artists in the Slovak Republic and U-M. Applicants were invited to propose projects in any field of research or teaching to be pursued in two, three-week visits to Ann Arbor or Slovakia in 2006.

U-M faculty receiving awards for research in Slovakia are: Frank Filisko, professor of materials sciences and engineering; Lawrence Perlman, assistant professor of psychiatry and the Ann Arbor Veterans Administration Medical Center; and Jennifer Zhao, professor of mathematics at U-M-Dearborn.

Three Slovak scholars from institutions in Bratislava received awards for research in Ann Arbor: Jana Flochova, professor and researcher in the Institute of Computer Systems and Networks at the Slovak University of Technology; Viera Rybarova, associate professor in the Language Department of the Academy of Music and Performing Arts; and Hana Smitkova, professor and researcher in the Department of Psychology at Comenius University.

Weiser, an Ann Arbor native and businessman, and his wife have worked to strengthen the educational connection to Slovakia, which became an independent democracy in 1993 and was one of 10 recent new members of the European Union. He is a graduate of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and founder and former CEO of real estate investment company McKinley Associates.

For more information on the Slovakia-U-M collaboration, visit www.umich.edu/~iinet/crees.

More Stories

• U-M receives $1M to increase transfers
• National Center for Institutional Diversity names fellows
• Infections linked to high death rate for women after heart surgery
• Can tax policy curb workaholic behavior?
• Neuroscientist to discuss stress response; two receive Russel awards
• Coleman: Universities will lead in diversifying economy
• Spotlight: U-Movie master
• Lucky winner of 'Weather Dance' will chase tornados
• Increase in student counseling leads to plans for new center
• Professor looks for more targeted way to deliver cancer drugs
• Bridging the gap between youth and school culture
• Three earn first Weiser fellowships
• University honors dedicated staff for being 'U'
• Campaign receives $6.5M of momentum in two months
• Student-run Frankel Fund ready to invest in startups
• NCID seeks fellows, practitioner nominations
• Birds of a feather 'flock' to Web site
• New collection celebrates groundbreaking journalist, U-M alumnus
• Scholarship & Creativity
• Cemetery provides details of American frontier life, death
• Washington, Lincoln and Franklin: Ad pitchmen?
• Don't Miss
• Photo: Peace and quiet
• Photo: U-M student's Philadelphia feat
• Photo: Prison Creative Arts Project at Duderstadt Center Gallery March 14-29
• Photo: UMS presents Belcea Quartet March 11 at Mendelssohn Theatre
• Photo: Muti conducts Vienna Philharmonic March 9 at Hill