American Friends of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

Board Members

Daniel Fallon, Ph.D.
Chair

Dan FallonDaniel Fallon retired from Carnegie Corporation of New York, where he supervised grant making as Chair of the Education Division. He is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Professor Emeritus of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he also served as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. Professor Fallon also held earlier appointments as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado at Denver, and Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences and of Harpur College at Binghamton University. He has published widely on learning and motivation,  on academic public policy, and on comparative higher education. He is the author of a prize-winning book, The German University: A Heroic Ideal in Conflict with the Modern World (1980). Professor Fallon serves the German government as adviser to its excellence initiative for higher education, and is a member of the Stiftungsrat of the Stiftungsuniversität Hildesheim and a member of the Hochschulrat of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum.


Ulrike Albrecht, Ph.D.
Vice-Chair

Ulrike AlbrechtUlrike Albrecht has been Head of the Department for Strategic Planning and External Relations at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn, Germany, since July 2001. In this capacity she is responsible for special programs, public relations, promotion, and relations with the Advisory Board for the Transatlantic Science and Humanities Program. From 1997 to 2001 Dr. Albrecht was head of the Department for Strategic Planning and Research at the University of Heidelberg. Prior to that, she served first as director of the public relations office and then as executive director of the “Conference of the German Academies of Science and Humanities” in Mainz. Dr. Albrecht holds graduate degrees in History and English and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Göttingen, where she also worked as assistant professor at the Institute of Economic and Social History.


A. Stephen Dahms, Ph.D.
Treasurer

A. Stephen DahmsFrom 2005 to 2009, Stephen Dahms served as President and CEO of the Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering and led the creation of the first two of 12-15 new biomedical product commercialization institutes (Mann Institutes for Biomedical Development) at elite U.S. universities.  Prior to that, as a biochemist-molecular biologist, Dahms was Professor of Chemistry at San Diego State University (1972-2006), founding director of the SDSU Molecular Biology Institute (1974-1992), director of the SDSU Biotechnology Research Program (1992-96), Director of the SDSU Center for Bio/Pharmaceutical and Biodevice Development (1996-2006) and Executive Director of CSUPERB, the biotechnology research and education program in the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system, the nation's largest university system, from 1987-2006. He serves on the boards of directors for a number of biotechnology trade groups and organizations, research foundations, and other organizations representing over fifty percent of the U.S. biotechnology and medical device industries. He is Chair of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Council of Biotechnology Centers/BIO and a member of national and international committees and commissions addressing the facilitation of interdisciplinary research and interfaces within the academic-bio/pharm/med device industry. Dahms is widely published and, between 2001 and 2004, coordinated a dozen symposia. In Febrary 2009 he was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Milan-based Fondazione Cariplo's venture capital arm, TT-Ventures, designed to invest in Italian university technologies and to accelerate their movement to the commercial cycle.  He speaks frequently on the topic of venture philanthrophy and its engagement in moving university technologies to commmercialization and to the benefit of society. He received the Humboldt Research Fellowship in 1979.


Matthias Vorwerk, Ph.D.
Secretary

Matthias VorwerkMatthias Vorwerk is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He specializes in Ancient Philosophy, especially the philosophy of Plato, Plotinus and the Platonic Tradition. After receiving his Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Münster in Germany, he worked as a Post-Doc Research Assistant in a project on the History of Platonism in Antiquity at the University of Münster. Subsequently, Matthias Vorwerk received a Feodor-Lynen-Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation to continue his research at Trinity College and University College Dublin, Ireland. In 2005, he was awarded membership in the Academia Platonica Septima. Since he arrived in the US in 2003, Prof. Vorwerk has served on the Calder-Fellowship Selection Committee.

 

Thomas Campbell, Ph.D.

Thomas CampbellThomas Campbell is Associate Director for Special Projects & Outreach and Research Associate Professor within the Institute for Critical Technology and Applies Science (ICTAS) at Virginia Tech. He develops and grows interdisciplinary research programs across a broad spectrum of science and technology, including nanotechnology, bio-nanotechnology, water, cancer, national security, printing and other areas. Professor Campbell joined Virginia Tech in 2008 after three years at ADA Technologies, Inc. in Colorado, where he served as Senior Research Scientist and Nanotechnology Program Manager. Prior to ADA, he was with Saint-Gobain, Inc. a Fortune 100 company, for five year as a Research Scientist. An Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow, he spent one year (1998-1999) as a postdoctoral researcher at the Universität Freiburg in Freiburg, Germany on a project in advanced materials. He has one US patent issued, nine patents pending, numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, and he has given multiple invited presentations worldwide. Professor Campbell has a M.S./Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the Univeristy of Colorado at Boulder and a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University.


Thomas Hesse, Ph.D.

Thomas HesseThomas Hesse has been Head of the Selection Department at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn, Germany, since 1999. As head of this department he is responsible for all matters regarding the selection of fellows and awardees of the Humboldt Foundation. Prior to that, he served as Program Director in the Selection Department and in the Department of Sponsorship Abroad. Dr. Hesse studied biology in Bonn with an emphasis on botany, plant molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry. Afterward he worked as a scientific associate at the Max-Planck-Institute for Plant Breeding, received his Ph.D. from the University of Bonn and continued his studies at the Max-Planck-Institute. As a Max Planck Society Fellow, Dr. Hesse conducted research at Monsanto Company in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1990 he was awarded the Otto Hahn Medal by the Max Planck Society for research in the area of Plant Molecular Biology.


Eric Koenig

Eric KoenigEric Koenig is a lawyer in Washington, DC. Mr. Koenig joined Microsoft in 1991 as senior attorney in the company's European office in Paris, France. His responsibilities included intellectual property, antitrust, litigation, trade, and management of legal and corporate affairs in Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, including Germany, the company's largest European market. In 1998 Mr. Koenig transferred to Washington, DC, where he served as the head of the federal policy team. In 2001 he retired from Microsoft. A magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University and a Root-Tilden Scholar at New York University School of Law, he was in the first class of German Chancellor Fellows selected by the Humboldt Foundation in 1990. He is President of the Board of Directors of the Juvenile Law Center and a member of the boards of several other non-profit organizations, including Global Rights, Appleseed, and the Advisory Committee of the Asia Society's Washington Center. He also has served on the Dean's Strategic Council at the New York University Law School and is a member of the Law School's Steering Committee for its current capital campaign.


Peggy Kuo

Peggy KuoPeggy Kuo is Chief Hearing Officer for the New York Stock Exchange. Previously, she was counsel with the law firm of WilmerHale in New York City. From 1998 until 2002, she was a trial attorney with the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the The Hague, where she prosecuted war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. She has also been a trial attorney and Acting Deputy Chief with the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Criminal Section and an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington, DC. She graduated from Harvard Law School and Yale College. As a German Chancellor Fellow, Peggy studied the German criminal law system in Berlin and Freiburg.

 

Jaan Laane, Ph.D.

Jaan LaaneJaan Laane is Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics at Texas A&M University, College Station, where he has been since 1968, becoming a full professor in 1976. His research utilizes laser and infrared spectroscopy and focuses on understanding the forces determining molecular structures. He has more than 270 publications and he is editor of three books of which the latest is Frontiers of Molecular Spectroscopy (2008). He has received numerous awards including the E. R. Lippincott Award in molecular spectroscopy in 2005. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society and to the Estonian Academy of Sciences. He is editor of the Journal of Molecular Structure. He has served on the board of directors of the Alexander von Humboldt Association of America since 2003 and has been president of the AvHAA for 2007-2008. Dr. Laane has his B.S. degree from the University of Illinois with Highest Distinction, his Ph.D. from M.I.T., and an honorary doctorate from Tartu University in Estonia. His Humboldt Award in 1979-1980 was spent at the Universität Bayreuth. He has served as Faculty Senate Speaker and Associate Dean of Science at Texas A&M and on the board of directors and as treasurer of the Coblentz Society.

Gale A. Mattox, Ph.D.

Gale A. MattoxGale A. Mattox is Professor Political Science Department, United States Naval Academy, (1981- / Department Chair 2003-2007) and Senior Scholar, American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, The Johns Hopkins University where she directs the Foreign and Domestic Policies Program. She adjuncts graduate corses at Georgetown University, BMW School for German and European Studies and Center for Peace and Security. She was awarded the Distinguished Fulbright-Dow Research Chair at the Roosevelt Center, Netherlands, 2009. Professor Mattox served on the Policy Planning Staff, Department of State (1994-1995), as Council on Foreign Relations Fellow, State Department Office of Strategic and Theater Nuclear Policy and as an international affairs analyst, Congressional Research Service. She has been a Bosch Fellow in Germany, NATO Research Fellow, Fulbright Scholar at DGAP in Bonn, Germany, President (1996-2003) of Women in International Security (WIIS) at Georgetown University, and Vice President of the International Studies Association. She was President, Robert Bosch Foundation Alumni Association (1985-1987) and is the incoming President, International Security and Arms Control Section, American Political Science Association.  She is widely published on German and European as well as nonproliferation issues.


Arnim H. Meyburg, Ph.D.

Arnim H. MeyburgArnim H. Meyburg is a Professor of Transportation Engineering and Planning in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, where he has been since 1969, immediately following the completion of his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering at Northwestern University. He did his undergraduate studies at Hamburg University and the Free University of Berlin. Meyburg is the Director of the Transportation Infrastructure Research Consortium (TIRC), a consortium of ten universities and two research labs, since its inception in 1996. At Cornell, he was Director of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 1988 to 1998 and Chairman of the Department of Environmental Engineering from 1980 to 1985. A consultant to various U.S. and foreign governmental and private agencies, Meyburg held visiting professorships in the United States, Germany, and Brazil. Major awards include a Humboldt-Foundation Fellowship (1978/79), Humboldt Research Award (1984); a Fulbright Senior Lecturing Award for Brazil, 1984; Professor-of-the-Year, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (1984, 1994, 1997.); Daniel M. Lazar ’29 Excellence in Teaching Award, College of Engineering (1999 and 2002.) His major research interests are travel demand modeling, travel survey methodologies, freight transportation, urban and regional transportation planning, transportation-communications trade-offs, transportation and the environment. He has served on the board of directors of the Alexander von Humboldt Association of America and has been its vice-president for 2007-2008.

 

Cathleen S. Fisher, Ph.D. (Ex-Officio Member)
President

Cathleen S. Fisher joined American Friends in 2008. From 2002-2006, she was Deputy Director at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS), The Johns Hopkins University, where she was centrally involved in management of all operations and programs in support of the Institute’s mission. Before joining AICGS, Fisher served for ten years as a Senior Associate at the Henry L. Stimson Center, a nonprofit public policy institute in Washington, D.C. focusing on international and national security issues. Dr. Fisher holds a Ph.D. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, an M.A. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from George Mason University’s School of Public Administration.

 

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