Come the Autumn, when TCD lecturer in computer science Donal O'Mahony packs his bags and sets off for the US, he will be following in the footsteps of more than 450 Irish academics who, over the last 40 years, have travelled to America on Fulbright scholarships.
"I wanted to take a year out to follow a particular line of research - the convergence of Internet telephony and mobile telephony," he explains. "Fulbright's visiting researcher scheme is funding my stay in Stanford University, where there are a lot of people working in areas that relate to my field." Stanford, one of the top US universities, lies in the heart of California's Silicon Valley, which itself is the world centre of the computer industry. The Fulbright Scholarship exchange programme was established in the United States in 1946 by Senator William Fulbright to encourage educational exchange between America and countries throughout the world. Ireland joined the programme in 1957. The scheme in Ireland is now run by the Fulbright Commission, which consists of eight members - four nominated by the Department of Foreign Affairs and four by the US ambassador.
The commission has recently acquired its first salaried director - Professor John Kelly, the former UCD registrar, who is combining his part-time UCD professorship with the Fulbright role. Scholarships, which are of one year's duration and open to both postgraduate students and professional academics, are advertised each year in the autumn. The number of scholarships varies from year to year - this year, for example, 18 scholarships have been offered to Irish people. A similar number of Americans will come to Ireland to study. Many of these come as visiting professors. The Mary Ball Washington Chair of History at UCD, for example, is always filled by a Fulbright scholar, Kelly says. The commission, which is chaired by Professor Brian Farrell, is looking for academic excellence. However, a first-class honours degree is not a pre-requisite. "We are looking at the possibility of getting scholarships in traditional Irish music and dance," Kelly notes, "in which case participants may not have university degrees."
Fulbright scholars, he says, tend to be young people involved in the humanities rather than in science and technology subjects. "We are looking to pick people who will benefit from spending some time in a US institution and who will bring back that experience." A major rule of Fulbright is that scholars must return to Ireland on completion of their year in the States and remain at home for two years. "We're not an export agency for academics." Kelly describes his own experience as a Fulbright scholar back in 1969 as "mind blowing. I can't recommend it enough." Eithne Dempsey, who lectures in chemistry at Tallaght IT, is a more recent - and, like O'Mahony, atypically scientific - scholar. She spent a year at New Mexico State University as a PhD student in 1992. "I had already spent six months at New Mexico State and wanted to go back to complete a block of work," she explains. Fulbright gave her the chance. "The experience was essential to my PhD - it speeded up my work. "The lab I went to is one of the best in the US in my field. I was involved in many varied projects and as a result was able to get published in quite a number of American scientific journals."
As a result of her visit, Dempsey says, she has made innumerable important and extremely useful scientific contacts - who now live in all parts of the world.
According to Kelly, Fulbright scholarships are worth around $10,000 - not a lot of money, but enough to get by if universities are also chipping in.
"I'll be living carefully," says Donal O'Mahony. "It's not a huge amount of money, but it's enough to make it possible."
Contact Point: Professor John Kelly, School of Engineering, UCD (tel: (01) 706 1826).
