Contact: Matt Lazier 
805-756-7109; mlazier@calpoly.edu  

Faculty Members are Teaching and Researching in Spain, Iceland and Brazil

SAN LUIS OBISPO, California — The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has recognized Cal Poly once again for being one of the colleges and universities with the highest number of faculty selected for the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program.

The distinction was in the Master’s Colleges and Universities category for the 2024-25 academic year.  This is the fifth time in the last 10 years that Cal Poly has received this distinction, which the university previously earned in 2022-23, 2021-22, 2018-19 and 2016-17.

Three Cal Poly faculty members were selected for Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program awards for the 2024-25 academic year: Paul Anderson, professor of computer science, is in Murcia, Spain, researching the application of AI in managing low back pain. His work aims to deepen understanding of chronic pain by drawing on global insights. Jean Davidson, assistant professor in biological sciences, traveled to Northern Iceland to advance her research in bioinformatics in partnership with the University of Akureyri. Sara Lopus, associate professor in social sciences, will travel to Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where she will join a former classmate at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais in researching how household compositional conditions may impact positive outcomes in children’s education.  

Anderson's research, conducted in collaboration with the Universidad de Murcia in the Murcia region on the coast of Spain, intends to address a pressing challenge: The fragmentation of chronic pain research due to increasing specialization often hampers interdisciplinary discoveries. His work aims to enhance precision in diagnosis, personalize treatment and improve patient outcomes for one of the world’s most prevalent ailments.  

“We must move beyond the confines of our country and its healthcare system to address the global issue of chronic pain,” Anderson said. “Do our narratives differ with varying healthcare systems and languages, and how can we bridge these gaps for better patient outcomes?”  

In Iceland, Davidson’s primary role was teaching an upper-division bioinformatics class on Icelandic topics and researching and analyzing the genomes of bacteria found in lichen with colleagues at the University of Akureyri.  
 

“I hope our students and theirs use this data and to work on academic journal papers together. Cal Poly and Akureyri will forever, hopefully, make connections and send students back and forth to share in research and learn from each other,” Davidson said. “This has been a great exchange of ideas, and this experience will be immensely valuable as I update course materials and continue to explore the global challenges that are happening and the curriculum we need to develop to address them.”

Lopus is an experienced quantitative scholar of international family demography. With her Fulbright Award, Lopus will build upon her emerging Latin American research agenda while working alongside Brazilian family demographers in Belo Horizonte (Brazil's third-largest metropolitan area) and immersing herself in Brazilian culture. Through this collaboration, Lopus aims to compare Brazilian patterns of family investments to those documented across Latin America, uncovering insights into variations in household-level predictors of favorable childhood outcomes.

"Even when analyzing publicly available datasets, traveling to the country where the data were collected can be so educational,” Lopus said. “Travel provides context for understanding the variables I analyze and adds vibrancy and flavor that makes my work feel multi-dimensional.” 

Applicants to the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program at Cal Poly are supported by campus liaison Cari Vanderkar, assistant vice provost for International Programs (civander@calpoly.edu). Nishi Rajakaruna, professor of biology, also serves as a Fulbright Scholar Ambassador (nrajakar@calpoly.edu). The Cal Poly International Center further offers resources for students applying to the U.S. Fulbright Student Program, and Vanderkar and Rajakaruna are contacts for that program as well.  

“As a Fulbright recipient myself, I know firsthand the lasting impact of cultural and research exchange on professional and personal trajectories,” Vanderkar said. “The Fulbright program is transforming lives daily, and I encourage colleagues to pursue the amazing opportunities it offers.”

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government's flagship international academic exchange program. Since 1946, it 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. Fulbright recipients exchange ideas, build people-to-people connections, and work to address complex global challenges. For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit https://fulbrightprogram.org/.