CAMPUS EVENTS

Family Weekend
October 16–18

The University’s financial aid budget for international undergraduate students has increased significantly since the 2007-2008 academic year when 115 international students received scholarships totaling $3.8 million. For the 2014-2015 academic year, 218 international undergraduates received $9.8 million in scholarship aid. The average award for these students was $44,831.

If you are interested in establishing a scholarship, please contact Assistant Vice President for International Advancement Josh Taub ’93.

Frances Cairncross AM’67 (United Kingdom), former rector of Exeter College in the University of Oxford, was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours for her service to higher education and to economics.

Former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17 and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal ’92 announced their candidacies for president of the United States.

Uttama Savanayana ’82 (Thailand), president of Bangkok University, has been named to the cabinet of General Prayut Chan-o-cha, the prime minister of Thailand. His position as information and communication technology minister has been approved by His Majesty the King.

Kate Adams ’86, senior vice president and general counsel of Honeywell, was a featured speaker at Honeywell's Women in Leadership Forum in the Middle East. Adams stressed that diversity in the workplace is not a luxury, but a business imperative.

Matthew Romaine ’01 (Japan), co-founder and CEO of the web-based human translation platform Gengo, was named to the 2015 Class of Asia 21 Young Leaders by the Asia Society. Asia 21 Young Leaders are selected based on outstanding achievement, commitment to public service, and a proven ability to make the world a better place.

Parita Parekh ’13 (India) co-founded WonderBoxx, which helps “unbox” the imagination of children through age-specific, hands-on learning tool-kits.

Brothers Aron and Gabriel Lesser ’15 have written and published Piecing Together São Paulo: An Insider’s Guide to Food, History, and Culture in a Bustling Metropolis, a travel guide focused on neighborhood walking tours.

Roy Tasco Davis, Class of 1910, made his career in government and later in the diplomatic corps. He advanced as a diplomat and was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Costa Rica (1922-1929) and then to Panama (1930-1933). He mediated a commission to establish a provisional boundary between Honduras and Guatemala in 1928. He also served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Haiti (1953-1957).

Brown Alumni Association

Alumni College Advising Program

Alumni Careers & Connections

BrownConnect

Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs

Giving to Brown

Brown in Paris and Henley-on-Thames
In July, President Christina Paxson traveled overseas to meet with members of the Brown community. Her first stop was Paris, where she attended an event with the Brown Club of France. Later, she visited Henley–on–Thames to cheer on the Women’s Crew team in the 2015 Henley Royal Regatta. The president then joined crew members—who placed second in the elite eights—as well as alumni and parents, at a reception hosted by the Brown Club of the United Kingdom.

Photo: President Paxson holding a Brown banner at the reception in Henley-on-Thames.

Fundraising Highlights for Fiscal Year 2015
During fiscal year 2015 (July 1, 2014–June 30, 2015) international alumni, parents, and friends made new gifts and pledges totaling $31 million—10.6 percent of the total $292 million raised by the University. Alumni, parents, and friends from the United Kingdom, Brazil, Hong Kong, Spain, France, Korea, Canada, Switzerland, India, and Singapore led the giving.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso LLD’04 Professorship
Brown recently announced plans to raise $5 million for an endowed professorship in the social sciences to be named for former president of Brazil and former Brown professor–at–large Fernando Henrique Cardoso. William Rhodes ’57 LHD’05 and Carlos Guimarães P’14 P’18 are leading the fundraising effort.

If you would like to contribute to this professorship, please contact Regional Director for International Advancement Robert Ayan. 

Brown Ranks among Top Universities Nationally and Internationally
Several national and international rankings have recognized Brown as being a top university, including the recently released U.S. News & World Report list of “America’s Best Colleges,” which placed Brown 14th among the best national universities. Brown was also recognized on other surveys for its academic strength, undergraduate teaching, financial aid, life–after–college preparation, and student offerings. Internationally, Brown placed 75th in the Times Higher Education’s “World University Rankings 2015,” and 75th in the 2015 “Academic Ranking of World Universities,” a list of the 500 top schools in the world compiled by the Center for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
The Watson Institute for International Studies and the University’s Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions recently merged. The integration will strengthen Brown by creating a distinctive locus for international and public policy. Effective July 1, the institute became the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, which seeks to promote a just and peaceful world through research, teaching, and public engagement. In June, the Watson Institute welcomed the inaugural class of the intensive one–year master of public affairs program, which prepares students for careers spanning public service, all levels of government, NGOs, foundations, and the private sector.

Brown Launches Middle East Studies Advisory Council
Brown will launch its Middle East Studies Advisory Council with an inaugural meeting in London on October 11. Joukowsky Family Distinguished Professor of Modern Middle East History and Director of Middle East Studies Beshara Doumani and Regional Director for International Advancement Robert Ayan will convene the meeting, featuring Journalist–in–Residence at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs Stephen Kinzer. The meeting will be hosted by council members Hassan Alaghband P’15 and Farah Asemi P’15. The Council will support the mission of Middle East Studies by promoting knowledge, understanding, and informed discussion of the Middle East through research, teaching, and public engagement.

If you would like to learn more about Brown’s Middle East Studies Advisory Council, please contact Robert Ayan.

Seventh Annual Brown International Advanced Research Institutes
In June, 155 promising young scholars from 60 countries came to Brown to participate in the Brown International Advanced Research Institutes (BIARI) for two weeks to engage in intellectual and policy dialogue with leading scholars in their fields and with each other. Since its inception in 2009, BIARI has been made possible through generous ongoing support from Santander Universities in Spain.

Photo: On a map of the world in the lobby of the Watson Institute, two BIARI participants pinpoint where they live and where they do research.

China Initiative Develops Its New Website
The University’s China Initiative is an interdisciplinary hub for the study of modern China. The initiative's goals are threefold: to produce cutting–edge academic research on the Chinese developmental experience, to apply that research to the resolution of real–world societal challenges, and to connect China-focused research to new forms of pedagogy and experiential learning. Visit the China Initiative’s newly developed website.

Padture to Lead $4-million Solar Cell Research Grant
A team of Brown researchers led by Nitin Padture, professor in the School of Engineering and director of Brown’s Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation, has been awarded $4 million by the National Science Foundation to study a promising new type of solar cell. The research, to be performed in partnership with the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and Rhode Island College, will focus on solar cells made from perovskites, a class of crystalline materials. “Perovskites have great promise for use in a variety of highly efficient, low-cost solar cells,” said Padture, who has delivered more than 160 invited/keynote/plenary talks in the United States and abroad. He also received a Distinguished Service Award 2012 from his undergraduate alma mater, the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay.

Photo: Nitin Padture, left, and engineering graduate student Yuanyuan Zhou (China) examine solar cell film made from perovskite.
Credit: Amy Simmons

Kumar Wins Alexander von Humboldt Award
Sharvan Kumar, professor of engineering, received an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation research award for his outstanding work with metallic materials for structural applications. The Foundation grants the awards each year to researchers from around the world to support collaborative projects with scientists in Germany. Kumar will work with Martin Heilmaier of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Dierk Raabe and Frank Stein of the Max–Planck–Institut für Eisenforschung in Düsseldorf.

Muhanna Awarded ACLS Fellowship
Elias Muhanna, Manning Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, has been named a 2015 American Council of Learned Societies Fellow. The fellowship is awarded to academics who create new knowledge resulting from investigations and reflections on diverse cultures, texts, and artifacts from across the globe and human history. Muhanna’s project is titled “Big Data in the Medieval Islamic World: Classical Arabic Encyclopedias in Their Golden Age.”

Gandhi Interviewed by The Indian Express
Leela Gandhi, John Hawkes Professor of Humanities and English, spoke to India's highly respected newspaper The Indian Express about her book The Common Cause: Postcolonial Ethics and the Practice of Democracy, the inner life of democracy, irascible Greek philosophers, the power of the imperfect and the ordinary, and what it means to be postcolonial in 2015.

Blyth on the Greek Debt Crisis
Mark Blyth, Eastman Professor of Political Economy, offers commentary in Foreign Affairs and for NPR’s On the Media regarding the origins and implications of the Greek debt crisis. “Greece has very little to do with the crisis that bears its name,” he said.

Kuo Creates Policy Briefs for South African Government
Caroline Kuo, assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences, helps South African families thrive at the intersection of the global HIV pandemic and mental health issues. In order to understand the experiences of the communities with which she works, she asks them to draw pictures to express themselves. She also creates policy briefs for the South African government.

Contreras Speaks at White House Panel
Manuel Contreras ’16, the son of Mexican immigrants, took part in a White House panel on “Beating the Odds” with First Lady Michelle Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. The audience included more than 130 college–bound students whose entry into higher education once seemed remote because of their circumstances, including homelessness and special needs. Contreras is a co–founder of 1vyG, an organization that supports first–generation college students.

Photo Credit: The White House

International Summer Internships
Brown is committed to expanding summer internships for undergraduate students by collaborating with alumni and parents to identify internship opportunities. This summer, more than 140 students participated in internships in more than 50 countries: primarily Hong Kong, India, the United Kingdom, China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Israel, and Germany.

If you are able to offer internships for Brown students, please contact Director of BrownConnect Aixa Kidd.

Student Reveals the Secrets of an Arabic Manuscript
Katherine Lamb ’16 has been on a scholarly adventure. Working with anthropologist Ian Straughn, the Joukowsky Family Middle East Studies Librarian, she has revealed secrets of an Arabic manuscript from Timbuktu recently donated to Brown's Middle Eastern and Islamic collections. An international relations concentrator with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa, Lamb learned Arabic at the University before undertaking this exciting summer Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).

Shanav’s First Taste of Rural India
Shanav Mehta ’18 writes about the Panika Project, his venture to create commercially viable products using hand-woven cloth from rural India. Mehta hopes it will lead the people of the Panika tribe to a future of self–sustenance.

Researchers and IBES Fellows Launch Joint Project to Restore Mata Atlântica Forest Biome
The Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES) and three Brazilian institutions are collaborating on an ambitious goal. They are seeking to restore the environmental damage done to Mata Atlântica, a tropical rainforest, while simultaneously supporting the social and economic development of the region’s people. The group's research is funded by an anonymous gift to Brown.

Brown Faculty Collaborate with Chinese Researchers on Air Pollution
In June, several faculty members of Brown’s School of Public Health attended the Brown-China Workshop on Epidemiology and Biostatistics held in Xi'an, China. During the week–long workshop, Brown faculty collaborated with scientists from the Chinese Institute of National Environmental Health Sciences and China’s National Cancer Center on issues related to air pollution and human health.

Photo: Workshop attendees included Brown faculty members Tongzhang Zheng, Karl Kelsey, Joseph Braun, Cici Bauer, Stephen Buka ’78, and Simin Liu.