USF earns national distinction as a leading producer of Fulbright Scholars

The Fulbright Program is again recognizing the University of South Florida as one of the nation's colleges and universities with the highest number of faculty and administrators selected for the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. This is the 10th time USF has made the coveted and prestigious list since 2015. USF is the only public university in Florida to be recognized as a Top Producer of Fulbright Scholars this year.

With eight USF faculty scholars selected for Fulbright awards for academic year 2025-26, participating faculty spanned a range of colleges, countries and disciplines. Among the group are College of Education leaders traveling to Serbia and Azerbaijan to share knowledge and a civil engineering professor connecting with South Korea on the development of advanced air mobility, technology that's also quickly approaching Florida's future.

The Fulbright Program, established in 1946, is the U.S. government's premier international academic exchange program. Each year, it provides opportunities for participants from 160 countries and locations to study, teach and conduct research abroad, advancing knowledge, science, and industry through international exchange and collaboration. Fulbright Alumni achieve distinction and are recognized as leaders in government, business, science, technology, research, education, and the arts.

"Being named a Fulbright Top Producer is a prestigious recognition that reflects USF's commitment to global engagement and faculty excellence." - USF World Vice President Kiki Caruson

"Being named a Fulbright Top Producer is a prestigious recognition that reflects USF's commitment to global engagement and faculty excellence," said USF World Vice President Kiki Caruson. "For over a decade, our faculty and student Fulbright awardees have built partnerships that expand knowledge, strengthen international collaboration, and create meaningful impact on our campuses, across the Tampa Bay region, and around the world."

Applicants to the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program at USF are supported by Dr. Darlene DeMarie, the university's Fulbright Faculty Advisor and a two-time Fulbright scholar herself in Hungary and South Africa. As a College of Education retired faculty member she collaborated on early childhood education programs. She continues to provide hands-on assistance with the competitive application process, assisting faculty members refine their research and teaching proposals, as well as conducting workshops and strategic advising.

Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the federal government. Fulbright alumni work to make a positive impact on their communities, sectors, and the world and have included 44 heads of state or government, 63 Nobel Laureates, 93 Pulitzer Prize winners, 83 MacArthur Fellows.

Meet USF's 2025-26 faculty Fulbright scholars

Darío Alejandro Arena

Darío Alejandro Arena is an associate professor in the Department of Physics and the principal investigator of the Magnetic Materials and Spin Dynamics Lab in the College of Engineering. Arena's research focuses on nanomagnetism and advanced materials characterization, with an emphasis on quantum probes (primarily X-rays and neutrons), electronic structure and spin dynamics. He has been awarded a second Fulbright Scholar Fellowship for the 2025-2026 academic year at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, where he is focusing on growing and studying ferrimagnetic thin films for spintronic applications.

Ya-Hui Cheng

Ya-Hui Cheng, associate professor of music theory, the College of the Arts, researches transcultural sound in global Chinese popular and folk music, exoticism in Italian opera and Buddhist music within the Mahayana tradition. As a Fulbright senior scholar, she traveled to Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan for a project exploring the integration of folk elements into contemporary Chinese music and tracing the evolution of global musical modernity within the Chinese context.

Getachew Dagne

Getachew Dagne is a professor of biostatistics in USF's College of Public Health and is training graduate students at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia over a 10-month period. The students are learning Bayesian methodology and survival analysis while investigating economic and cultural disparities in colorectal cancer incidence and mortality in their country.

Zorka Karanxha

Zorka Karanxha, a professor in the College of Education's Department of Leadership, Policy & Lifelong Learning, traveled to Azerbaijan for her research focusing on educational leadership preparation, special education law and charter schools, with an emphasis on analyzing educational leadership policies and their influence on school communities.

Tatsiana Kulakevich

Tatsiana Kulakevich is an associate professor of instruction in research methods and quantitative analysis from the USF School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies and the USF Institute on Russia. She is conducting research in Poland. Her work focuses on trade and deterrence in Eastern Europe.

Glenn Smith

Glenn Smith is a professor in the Department of Educational and Psychological Studies in the College of Education and traveled to Serbia for a combined teaching and research project in the field of educational technology. He previously served as a Fulbright Scholar in Slovenia, where he conducted research aimed at improving fourth-grade students' reading comprehension and motivation through the creation of eBooks featuring game-like characters, social interaction and open-ended questions.

Alexei Volinsky

Alexei Volinsky, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is serving as an associate professor at the Kazakh-British Technical University. Volinsky is an expert in thin films, and his research is supported by his industrial experience at technology companies.

Yu Yu Zhang

Yu Yu Zhang is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and leads the Smart Urban Mobility Laboratory at USF. Her Fulbright award is through the U.S.-Korea Presidential STEM Initiative to visit KAIST University in South Korea. She is collaborating with researchers from KAIST's Center for Advanced Urban Systems on integrating advanced air mobility into multimodal transportation systems.

For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit the Fulbright Program website.