The U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announced that Karen Wei-Ru Lin, M.D., of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has received a Fulbright Specialist Program award. Dr. Lin will complete a project at Kobe University in Japan that aims to exchange knowledge and establish partnerships benefiting participants, institutions, and communities both in the U.S. and overseas through a variety of educational and training activities within Public/Global Health.
Dr. Lin is a professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS). She also serves as the Associate Dean of Global Health at RWJMS and the Assistant Director of Family Medicine Residency at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
“I am honored to receive this Fulbright Specialist award at the Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine," noted Dr. Lin. “It is especially gratifying to go back to Japan as on a Fulbright Specialist Award. In 2023, I was at Kaohsiung Medical University, and just last week, their deans visited Rutgers to discuss their expanded collaboration with other units at Rutgers, including nursing, kinesiology, social work, and more.” She added, "The connection originated from 1997 when the Japanese emergency medicine physician of Hyogo University, Dr. Kotani, worked at the research laboratory of Dr. Stephen Lowry, the past chair of surgery department at RWJMS. The Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with RWJMS between Hyogo University and Kobe University were initiated in 2014 and 2023 respectively."
Dr. Lin is one of more than 400 U.S. citizens who share expertise with host institutions abroad through the Fulbright Specialist Program each year. Recipients of Fulbright Specialist awards are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement, demonstrated leadership in their field, and their potential to foster long-term cooperation between institutions in the U.S. and abroad.
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to build lasting connections between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the Program, which operates in over 160 countries worldwide.
Since its establishment in 1946, the Fulbright Program has given more than 400,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists, and scientists the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas, and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.
Fulbrighters address critical global issues in all disciplines, while building relationships, knowledge, and leadership in support of the long-term interests of the United States. Fulbright alumni have achieved distinction in many fields, including 60 who have been awarded the Nobel Prize, 88 who have received Pulitzer Prizes, and 39 who have served as a head of state or government.
For further information about the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State, please visit http://eca.state.gov/fulbright.
Rutgers University–New Brunswick has earned recognition as a top producer of Fulbright U.S. Scholars by the U.S. Department of State, securing its place among the nation’s elite institutions for faculty and administrators selected for the program.
Six scholars from Rutgers–New Brunswick have been awarded Fulbright grants for the 2024-2025 academic year for a range of projects throughout the world, as announced by the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs on February 25.
