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News Release

January 20, 2006

U of G Awarded First Fulbright Chair

The University of Guelph has been awarded its first-ever chair from the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program. The prestigious honour will bring esteemed visiting scholars to Guelph to collaborate with faculty and conduct research.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for the entire U of G community,” Prof. Maureen Mancuso, vice-president (academic), said of the Fulbright-University of Guelph Visiting Chair in Environmental Science and Public Policy. “It will allow our faculty to forge new links with their American counterparts. It also speaks to Guelph’s leadership in public policy and environmental science because establishing a Fulbright chair is a very complicated process.”

U of G will welcome a senior U.S. scholar selected by the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program annually during the chair’s five-year duration. Individuals will be selected based on their academic or professional qualifications and willingness to share ideas and experiences, and the chosen candidate will work and study in Guelph for a semester.

The first U of G-Fulbright chair will be held by David Hamilton, a professor of public policy at Roosevelt University in Chicago. He arrived in Guelph this week. “We are delighted to welcome Dr. Hamilton to U of G,” Mancuso said. “He is a recognized scholar for his work on contemporary public policy and federalism. He’ll bring a breadth of knowledge and a fresh perspective to the University because his work crosses disciplinary boundaries. His presence will be particularly beneficial to students and faculty in environmental sciences and political science.”

Hamilton will be researching the differences between Canada and the United States in addressing regional issues in metropolitan areas. “I will be looking at environmental policy very broadly --- in this case in government environments.”

The two countries have embarked on markedly different approaches in accommodating local government systems to meet the challenges of the new century, he said. The United States has focussed on governance within existing local structures, whereas Canada favours moving from a tiered regional system to an amalgamated “megacity” approach, as in Toronto, Ottawa and Cambridge.

Hamilton plans to gather data throughout Ontario with a focus on Toronto. “I’ll be looking at the changes that have taken place and how they have impacted the ability of the local governments to provide services.” He’s also interested in the politics and practical implications of “megacities.” “I’ll be talking to people to find out whether they eventually embraced the changes or if there was resistance and they were difficult to implement.” He intends to publish this comparative analysis as a book-length manuscript.

Long regarded as the world’s premier academic exchange program, the Fulbright program attracts exceptional scholars from more than 150 countries worldwide. Established in 1946, it is named for former U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright and supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs Canada and the United States Department of State.

More than 250,000 people chosen for academic merit and leadership potential have studied, researched and taught in partner countries on Fulbright exchanges. Alumni include Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, ambassadors and artists, prime ministers and heads of states, scientists and professors, and CEOs. The 15-year-old Canada-U.S. program is among the fastest growing of the bilateral exchanges, with some 800 alumni.