6 | LEHIGH ALUMNI BULLETIN | FROM THE NEST Afiwa Afandalo ʼ24 will be traveling to Yaoundé, Cameroonʼs capital city, to serve as an English teaching assistant, and Kendalin Flores ʼ26 is headed to the Dominican Republic as a marine biology researcher. Karina Makhani ʼ26 was chosen as an alternate for the Master of Applied Sciences and Engineering: Computer Science at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Belgium. While many of the faculty members are conducting research, one is also teaching and participating in professional development, while another will be a specialist at an engineering institute. Muhannad T. Suleiman, professor of civil and environmental engineering and deputy director of the Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems (ATLSS) Engineering Research Center, will split his time between the cities of Amman and Irbid in Jordan completing research, teaching and professional development. Himanshu Jain, Theodore L. Diamond Distinguished Chair in Engineering and Applied Science and professor of materials science and engineering, will be a specialist for the Engineering Education Instituto de Ceramica y Vidrio—CSIC in Madrid, Spain. The remaining faculty members conducting research include: Santiago Herrera, associate professor, in Argentina; Johanna Kowalko, associate professor, University of Munster in Germany; Alberto J. Lamadrid, professor and director of the Institute for Cyber Physical Infrastructure and Energy, at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Medellin in Colombia; Jill McDermott, associate professor, Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina; Nik Nikolov, associate professor, in Italy; Jessica Peng, assistant professor, in Indonesia; David Vicic, Howard S. Bunn Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, in Slovenia. The awards give recipients the opportunity to turn their purpose into tangible human and scientific impact. —Stephen Gross Lehigh continues its extensive and committed history with the Fulbright Scholarship program, setting a record for most recipients from the university in a single cycle. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international academic exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government, which aims to foster mutual understanding between the U.S. and other countries since 1946. The program awards approximately 9,000 students, scholars and faculty from the U.S. and more than 160 countries each year, according to the Fulbright Program website. Two Lehigh students were named recipients of the award, one was selected as an alternate and all nine faculty members who applied were awarded Fulbright Scholarships for the 202627 academic year. Prior to this cycle, Lehighʼs previous record was set in 2018-19 when the university had six total scholars. Last academic year Lehigh had its third-highest cycle with five combined students and faculty members. The milestone reflects Lehighʼs collaborative environment, which prepares students to stand out on the world stage, as Bill Hunter, director of fellowship advising and UN programs, noted. “Lehighʼs interdisciplinary approach to education, and the purposeful development of students with selfother-world perspectives, is really attractive to the Fulbright Commission,ˮ Hunter said. “Through the Fulbright Scholarship, our students become Future Makers on a global scale and our faculty are truly leaders in their fields. The Fulbright Commission certainly recognized that this year. While this is a record year, our current students and faculty are well-positioned to win even more Fulbrights. We hope to shatter this record in future years.ˮ One of the students will be conducting research, while the other recipient will be teaching. RESEARCH 2026-27 Fulbright Scholars Set Lehigh Record Two student recipients, a student alternate and nine faculty members topped the previous high of six total scholars in the 2018-19 cycle. Kendalin Flores ’26 Afiwa Afandalo ’24 Karina Makhani ’26 CHRISTA NEU
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