Six U.S. Fulbright Finland alumni have received the Friends of Fulbright Finland (FoFF) Alumni Enrichment Award to return to Finland and deepen collaborations with their local colleagues.
This special award is funded by the FoFF Alumni Enrichment Endowment, for which all funds have been received by personal donations from alumni and friends of the Fulbright Finland Foundation.
The 2026 award recipients represent a variety of fields ranging from biotechnology and finance to arts, musicology, and vocational teacher education.
The awardees are:
- Philippe Amstislavski (2020–21 Fulbright-VTT Award in Science, Technology and Innovation): Developing a rigorous measurement framework for scaling mycelium-based materials with VTT colleagues.
- Leah Beeferman (2016–17 Mid-Career Professional Development Program): Hosting an artist talk at Bioart Society and planning a future exhibition with Finnish collaborators.
- John Broussard (2016–17 Fulbright-Hanken Distinguished Chair): Designing and implementing an industry-aligned Master of Science in AI-Driven Finance and Accounting (MSc-AIFA) degree program.
- Paul Niemisto (1998–99 and 2016–17 U.S. Core Fulbright Scholar): Studying 19th-century Finnish military brass band manuscripts and preparing them for live performance by the Finnish Guards Band.
- Thomas O’Connell (2023–24 Fulbright Specialist Program): Continuing research on exercise physiology and health data analysis at the University of Jyväskylä.
- Christopher Zirkle (2021–22 Fulbright-Haaga-Helia Scholar Award): Investigating professional development needs of Finland’s vocational teachers to inform international best practices.
The FoFF Alumni Enrichment Endowment was launched in 2012, to create a permanent source of funds to support a new grant program for U.S. alumni to return to Finland.
Since the endowment fund’s launch in 2012, the award has been granted to 18 U.S. alumni of the Fulbright Finland Foundation.
Read more about the Friends of Fulbright Finland (FoFF) Alumni Enrichment Award.
Donate to the endowment.
Rahankeräyslupa RA/2022/61
