Williams new Fulbright in AU Architecture

Jack Williams, professor in the Auburn University College of Architecture, Design and Constructions's School of Architecture, has been named a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar.

Williams, who is the chair of Landscape Architecture, is the Fulbright-Fladd Endowed Chair of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design. The chair was awarded by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Beginning his studies at the University of Lusiada in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2005, Williams will teach courses there in landscape architecture and urban design. He will also share his research on urban form in Mexico, China and the American South. Williams also plans to expand his studies through investigations of the white villages of the Iberian Peninsula.

"Jack Williams' teaching and research interest centers upon urban and rural settlement patterns and the cultural-sociological associations related to that issue," said Daniel Bennett, dean of the College of Architecture, Design and Construction. "This cutting-edge work involves both a national and international emphasis. It is a great honor the CADC and Auburn University to have such a respected and skilled professor represent us abroad."

Williams began teaching full-time in the AU School of Architecture in 1992. Prior to coming to Auburn, he had his own firm, Woo and Williams in Cambridge, Mass. Williams' work there included designs for the athletes' and reporters' villages for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, as well as the Harvard University faculty townhouses in Cambridge, Mass.

Williams' previous fellowships include the Asian Cultural Council to travel and research the distinctive typologies of courtyard housing in rural villages of China, as well as a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts to complete his work on urban form in small Alabama towns. The material will be incorporated in East 40 Degrees, Mapping the Meaning of Place, a forthcoming book by Williams, published by the University of Virginia Press.

"This Fellowship means a lot to me as I have spent my professional and academic life working and teaching in international situations. I designed a new university for Indonesia, housing in Saudi Arabia, the Olympic Village in Korea all projects with architects from those countries -- and I have taken students to China, Cuba, Canada, Mexico and, of course Europe," he said. "I have lived and taught international collaboration and exploration because I believe the problems of the way we settle of this earth are universal -- that they cut across all cultures.

"The problems of habitat destruction and urban poverty must be addressed by all peoples. So this Fellowship means I have become what I am -­ not only an ambassador for the United States, but also an advocate for a more humane and sustainable world."

According to the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, the Fulbright Program is the U.S. government's flagship program in international educational exchange and grants are made to U.S. citizens and nationals of other countries for a variety of educational activities, primarily university lecturing, advanced research, graduate study and teaching in elementary and secondary schools.

Since the program's inception, more than 250,000 participants -- chosen for their leadership potential -- have had the opportunity to observe each other's political, economic and cultural institutions.