Ileana Streinu earned a PhD in computer science from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey and a doctorate in mathematics/theoretical computer science from the University of Bucharest, in Romania, both in 1994. She is is the Charles N. Clark chaired professor of Computer Science and Mathematics at Smith College in Massachusetts and is also affiliated as an adjunct professor in the Manning College of Information & Computer Sciences of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research addresses geometric problems emerging in a variety of applied areas of science, from mechanics, robotics, computer-aided design, statistics or sensor networks to crystallography and molecular modeling. Underlying all these problems are geometrically constrained structures called linkages or mechanical frameworks. Their rigidity and flexibility properties are translated in combinatorial terms to enable the study of their possible deformations and motion from the point of view of classical kinematics. This line of work draws upon techniques and ideas from discrete and computational geometry, rigidity theory, matroids and graph theory and extends into interdisciplinary directions, ranging from origami and robotics to bio-geometry. It also has applications in computational biology and computational materials science, and the web application KINARI developed in Prof. Streinu's group facilitates the investigation of rigidity and flexibility properties of proteins and other macro-molecules. Streinu was elected as a fellow of the American Mathematical Society as part of the 2013 inaugural class. She has received the 2010 David P. Robbins Prize of the American Mathematical Society for her algorithmic solution to the “carpenter’s rule problem" in linkage theory. Together with professor Ciprian Borcea, she was awarded the 2004 Grigore C. Moisil Award of the Romanian Academy for their paper on the number of embeddings of minimally rigid graphs. The present Fulbright project is centered on a collaboration with Prof. Ioannis Emiris, director of the Athena Research & Innovation Center and his group at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Our goal is to apply recently developed techniques in computational algebra to problems in distance geometry, crystallography and materials science.

Professor Karagas is the inaugural chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Geisel School of Medicine and founding director of the Centers for Molecular Epidemiology and Children Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research at Dartmouth College. As part of her deep commitment to interdisciplinary training, Professor Karagas collaboratively established an innovative, cross-disciplinary postdoctoral and graduate program in the quantitative biomedical sciences (QBS) that integrates epidemiology, bioinformatics, and biostatistics. Her research interests encompass interdisciplinary studies that seek to illuminate the causes of human disease by investigating emerging environmental exposures, host factors, and mechanisms -- that impact health from infancy through adult life. Her studies focus on under-studied, rural populations while contributing to large multi-center efforts such as the NIH-funded Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Study which includes over 90,000 participants across the USA. Her work incorporates high-dimensional analytic tools along with biomarkers and sensors of the exposome, genetic susceptibility, and biological response. These efforts have helped to uncover adverse cardiometabolic, neurodevelopmental, and immune-related pregnancy-child health outcomes as well as carcinogenic effects of drinking water contaminants, food-borne toxicants including in infant first foods and exposures from woodstoves along with other environmental threats and have led to practice and policy changes. She has published over 500 scientific research articles and reports and has served on international consensus panels and committees for the United Nations, World Health Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer, European Food Safety Authority, US National Institute of Health, and National Academies of Science, and Engineering and Medicine among others. As part of this Fulbright Award, Professor Karagas will advance research and training opportunities for addressing urgent environmental health challenges facing children such as climate change and industrial contamination by working with the Institute of Preventive Medicine, Environmental and Occupational Health (Prolepsis Institute), a non-governmental organization dedicated to food security, health promotion, and humanitarian efforts in Greece.

Mat Diafos Sweeney is a director, composer, and interdisciplinary artist. He “hurtles over the boundaries between genres to create immersive, transformative events” (NPR). In sound, image, and movement, he reimagines mythic narratives for our age of limitless information, dehumanizing technologies, and ecological anxiety. Mat writes and composes for unique performance ensembles that generate shifting visual, physical, and musical landscapes with bodies, voices, and instruments. He has created and presented original work in galleries, museums, and disused industrial spaces, as well as proscenium stages and on film. His work has been described as “the future of contemporary performance” (Los Angeles Times). Mat is a recent fellow at MacDowell, at Yaddo, and at the Bogliasco Foundation Study Center in Genoa, and was the recipient of the Dorothy and Richard E Sherwood Award from Center Theatre Group. Mat’s creative research centers around ancient ritual and performance cultures and their contemporary analogues. His 'Katabasis' (descent through the underworld), styled after the Eleusinian mysteries, led audiences across the grounds and gardens of the Getty Villa museum, and was heralded as a "brilliant postmodern opera" (Fabrik) that set "a high water mark for site-specific performance" (NoProscenium). During the pandemic he created an album of new songs inspired by the Homeric Hymns, reimagined through a prism of global devotional folk music. The accompanying film, also created at the Getty, was recently selected by the Society for Classical Studies for its ‘Ancient Worlds, Modern Communities’ program. He frequently shares his research and practice with students, most recently as a guest lecturer in the Classics Department at UCLA and at CalArts. As a Fulbright Scholar Mat will be researching and devising a new performance work while in residence at the University of the Peloponnese' Department of Performing and Digital Arts in Nafplio. His associated research will trace a thread between the ancient chorus and ongoing polyphonic vocal traditions in Greece.

Nancy Snow is a scholar in the subfield of International Relations known as public diplomacy. As a foundational faculty, she has helped advance public diplomacy in curriculum and practice at two flagship graduate programs, University of Southern California Annenberg School and Syracuse University Newhouse School. As Professor Emeritus of Communications, California State Fullerton, she was invited to serve as the first public diplomacy professor in Japan. Nancy remains a strong advocate for person-to-person exchanges. Her professional affiliations are broad, including advising various governments in global strategic communications. She is an advisor to the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Foundation and serves on the editorial advising boards of the "Journal of Public Diplomacy" (South Korea), "Public Diplomacy" magazine (USC), and the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence journal, "Defence Strategic Communications" (Latvia). Nancy is a Strategic Communications Director at the International Security Industry Council of Japan, a think tank on defense, security, and national interest issues, and Adjunct Fellow in the Institute for Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University, Japan.

She has published fifteen books, including "Propaganda and America Democracy" (LSU Press, 2014) and "The Mystery of Japan’s Information Power" in Japanese (Bunshindo, 2022); two 2020 imprints, "Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy" second edition (2020) with Nicholas Cull, and the first edition of the "Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy" with Philip M. Taylor of the University of Leeds (2009). Nancy Snow co-edited "The SAGE Handbook of Propaganda" (2020) with Paul Baines and Nicholas O'Shaughnessy. Her books are available in seven foreign translations (that she knows of!) Forthcoming works are to co-author with Garth Jowett the 8th edition of the SAGE classic textbook, "Propaganda and Persuasion," and to author "Battleship Diplomat: The Enduring Soul of the Mighty Mo" for the Naval Institute Press. This book is in tribute to her father, BB-63 Naval Ensign Victor Donald Snow, Sr. (Rice/MIT), who participated in the March-May 1946 Mediterranean Cruise to Turkey, Greece, Italy, Algiers and Morocco, a successful reestablishment of the U.S. Navy’s presence in what would soon become the “Cold War” home waters of the Sixth Fleet.

As part of her Fulbright, Nancy will emphasize teaching and research that enhance the curriculum of the Department of International, European and Area Studies. She will contribute to MA courses, "Euro-Atlantic Relations" at Panteion, and "Crisis Management," a graduate course in the joint MA in Strategic Studies, offered by the Department and the Hellenic National Defense College. In addition, Nancy will prepare a public lecture for the Institute of International Relations and give a seminar, “Public Diplomacy in Times of Crisis,” for the Life-Long-Learning Program. A workshop on "War, Media and Propaganda" is planned for the Hellenic National Defense College.