The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs recognized the University of Wisconsin–Madison for being one of the colleges and universities with the highest number of students, faculty, and administrators selected for the Fulbright U.S. Student and Fulbright U.S. Scholar Programs.
Nineteen institutions—13 doctoral, one master’s, four baccalaureate, and one special focus institution—earned the distinction of being Top Producers of both U.S. Scholars and U.S. Students in 2024-2025. Seven students and 11 faculty and administrators from UW–Madison accepted Fulbright awards for the 2024-2025 academic year. Fulbright Scholar Award recipients were announced in fall 2024.
The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international academic exchange program. Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided over 400,000 talented and accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals of all backgrounds with the opportunity to study, teach, and conduct research abroad. Fulbrighters exchange ideas, build people-to-people connections, and work to address complex global challenges.
“The Fulbright Program has contributed in countless ways to the advancement of research, teaching, and engagement around the world,” said Frances Vavrus, vice provost and dean of the International Division and a former Fulbright awardee. “Fulbright students and scholars enrich the cultural and intellectual fabric of our community and enhance the educational experience for all. Those from UW–Madison who receive Fulbright awards build professional relationships that can last a lifetime and serve as outstanding representatives of our university throughout the world.”
More information about the programs can be found at UW’s Fulbright website. Those interested are also welcome to contact Fulbright Coordinator Mark Lilleleht at uwfulbright@wisc.edu or by completing an interest form. The university community is also invited to celebrate Fulbright Week, March 3-7. The week offers a mix of both in-person and virtual events where interested students, alumni, faculty, and staff can learn more about the many Fulbright and Fulbright-Hays programs available and connect with current Fulbrighters, past recipients, and Fulbright and commission staff.
Fulbright U.S. Student Program 2024-2025
Eleven UW–Madison applicants were selected as finalists for Fulbright awards for the 2024–2025 academic year. Three Badgers accepted English teaching assistant (ETA) awards and four received study and research awards. Grace Bauernfeind, Cameron Daddis, Monica Perez Ortiz, and Anika Rice were selected as finalists but declined their awards. The following are the Badgers who officially accepted awards.
Rebecca Alcock, research
PhD x’25, Industrial and Systems Engineering; BSBME ’18; MSBME ’20
Zürich, Switzerland
Grant period: Nov. 1, 2024-Aug. 31, 2025
Alcock’s research seeks to make renewable energy design and implementation more accessible to health facilities in resource-limited settings and takes special interest in micro e-mobility networks. She is working with researchers to finish developing an open-source toolkit that health facilities and development organizations can use for custom demand estimation, optimal sizing, and performance simulation of microgrid and micromobility systems in the face of a changing climate. The toolkit’s outputs will equip decision-makers in these settings with the information they need to pursue electrification of their health facilities. She hopes to further evaluate these systems’ viability and the toolkit’s usefulness through a case study and pilot implementation with community partners in rural Colombia.
Alyssa Bryl, research, Fulbright-Mach Award
PhD x’26, German
Vienna, Austria
Grant period: Oct. 2024-June 2025
Exploring cities as cultural artifacts can reveal much about societal values, memory, and identity. Bryl is looking at the municipal apartments of Vienna and how they fit into the memorial culture (monuments, street names, plaques, etc.) of the city. She is viewing the municipal apartments as sites actively utilized for projecting memory and Austrian identity, specifically for promoting the legacy of the Red Vienna period (1919-1934) when the municipal housing program began. Bryl believes that memorializing this period (including its political figures and programs) represents a strategy through which modern Austria circumvents addressing its fascist and authoritarian past from 1934-1945. Bryl previously spent time in Austria as a teaching assistant through Fulbright.
Gabriela Fleury, research
PhD x’27, Environment and Resources
Botswana
Grant period: May-Oct. 2024
This award helped facilitate the first full field season of Fleury’s PhD research on carnivore-livestock conflict in the Kalahari Desert. While in the remote Ghanzi District of western Botswana, she worked with the indigenous San people and Cheetah Conservation Botswana, a local NGO, to test flashing light deterrents to determine their efficacy in keeping carnivores away from livestock enclosures. After a full community consultation, she deployed 66 camera traps and foxlights (flashing light deterrents) in a rigorous before-after-control-impact design to collect data on carnivore reactions to this deterrent. Fleury also collected qualitative data from farmers on farming practices and livestock husbandry techniques. As most wildlife research in Botswana focuses on the Okavango Delta, this research in the understudied Kalahari will provide essential information relevant to wildlife conservation strategies.
Kamika Patel, English teaching assistant
BA ’24, International Studies and Communication Arts
Bogotá, Colombia
Grant period: Aug. 2024-May 2025
Patel is an English teaching assistant (ETA) in Bogotá, Colombia, at Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia. Her responsibilities include giving presentations on various topics related to the United States, preparing classroom activities, and encouraging Colombian university students to communicate in English. Additionally, she is engaging in a social project related to personal, career, and educational interests.
Devon Stackonis, arts
MFA ’24, Printmaking
Wroclaw, Poland
Grant period: Sept. 2024-June 2025
Stackonis is engaging in a specialized printmaking process mentorship with renowned Poland-based Mezzotint Artist Christopher Nowicki at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Arts and Design in Wroclaw. A long-standing faculty member at the academy, this will be Chris Nowicki’s last year as an instructor of printmaking, and she is eager to work alongside him in the Intaglio Studio. Much of her work has dealt conceptually with ancestral labor history, resource extraction, and the psychological, environmental, and socioeconomic impacts of an obsolete industry. She wishes to continue this body of work in Poland, where she plans to develop a series of mezzotint prints that address these pressing, cross-cultural environmental issues.
Jack Styler, English Teaching Assistant
BA ’22, History and Political Science
Latvia
Steffenie Williams, research
PhD, Curriculum and Instruction; MS, Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis, Curriculum & Instruction; BS, Elementary Education
Australia
Grant period: Jan. 2025-Oct. 2025
Williams is studying play and play-based education in Australia, focusing on the impact of play and play-based learning in Aboriginal schools and communities. She is traveling throughout Australia to work in six different territories with six Aboriginal tribes. She is excited to work with leaders in innovative education and people who value play/play-based learning.
2024-2025 Fulbright U.S. Scholars
The following is a list of scholars who accepted awards for 2024-2025 as reported in August 2024. Learn more about recipients by reviewing the announcement.
- Libby Hladik, Department of Kinesiology and the Occupational Therapy Program, Czech Republic
- Anthony Ives, Department of Integrative Biology, Iceland
- Heinz Klug, UW Law School, Ghana
- Alexandre Lazarian, Department of Astronomy, Chile
- Benjamin Parrell, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Spain
- Pavana Prabhakar, Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, India
- Jessica Schmidt, Department of Emergency Medicine, Rwanda
- Howard Schweber, Department of Political Science, Austria
- Bradley Singer, Department of Geoscience, Chile
- Sarah Ann Wells, Department of English, Brazil
- Ryan Westergaard, Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine, Rwanda
About Fulbright
Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. Government. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the Program.
Fulbright alumni work to make a positive impact on their communities, sectors, and the world and have included 44 heads of state or government, 62 Nobel Laureates, 90 Pulitzer Prize winners, 82 MacArthur Fellows, and countless leaders and changemakers who build mutual understanding between the people of the United State and the people of other countries.
For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit fulbrightprogram.org.
Story by Steve Barcus