20 May 2021, Geneva, Switzerland – The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) is proud to announce that Professor Paul Arthur Berkman, UNITAR Associated Fellow, has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award to Norway for 2021-22. This award is conferred by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. 

Professor Berkman is a longstanding Associated Fellow with UNITAR and has delivered training programmes on science diplomacy and informed decision-making to governments across the world, including the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, as well as Canada, Georgia, the Kingdom of Norway, and the Russian Federation. He will also assume a leading teaching role in the upcoming UNITAR Executive Summer Programme on Innovations in Science Diplomacy. 

As a Fulbright Scholar, Professor Berkman will share knowledge and foster meaningful connections across communities in the United States and Norway. Professor Berkman will research and lecture at the UIT Arctic University of Norway, as part of a Fulbright Arctic Chair project to apply “Science Diplomacy and Informed Decision-Making for the Arctic Ocean Sustainability”. 

“Science diplomacy is an essential pillar of international cooperation and sustainable technological advancement” said Rabih El-Haddad, Director of UNITAR’s Division for Multilateral Diplomacy, “Professor Berkman’s experience will contribute to making the Arctic Ocean a field of cooperation between diplomats and researchers in this vital part of the world.” 

“The Fulbright Arctic Chair 2021-2022 in Tromsø with The Arctic University of Norway is a wonderful opportunity to create synergies with science diplomacy, revealing lessons from the Arctic in a global context with sustainable development.” said Professor Berkman, “My hope, on this 75th anniversary year of the Fulbright Program, is that the Arctic will awaken an era of informed decision-making to balance national and common interests for the benefit of all on Earth across generations.” 

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international exchange program sponsored by the United States’ government, and its recipients are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement as well as a record of service and demonstrated leadership in their respective fields. Fulbright alumni include 60 Nobel Prize laureates, 88 Pulitzer Prize recipients, and 39 who have served as a head of state or government. 

UNITAR offers its warmest congratulations to Professor Berkman on the U.S. Fulbright Scholar Program Award to Norway for 2021-22, and wishes him every success for his work in Norway.