Dr. Ronaldo Luna, associate professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture and conduct research for a semester at the Universidad del Valle in Guatemala City, Guatemala, starting in January 2005.

One of approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright Scholar Program in 2004-2005, Luna will lecture on earthquake- and rainfall-induced landslide hazards and their engineering mitigation.

Fulbright Scholars are selected based on their academic or professional achievement and extraordinary leadership potential in their fields.

Luna’s primary research efforts include soil mechanics and foundation engineering, earthquake engineering, hazard modeling, numerical modeling and information systems.

He is a member of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, American Society of Engineering Education, American Society of Civil Engineering, Sigma Xi, Chi Epsilon, National Society of Professional Engineers and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.

Luna received a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the University of Maryland-College Park in 1983. After earning his master of science degree in civil engineering from Purdue University in 1985, Luna worked as a professional engineer on the West Coast for seven years before obtaining his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1995. A registered professional engineer in the states of Washington, California and Missouri, Luna joined the UMR faculty in 1999 following four years at Tulane University.

Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Scholar program builds mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries.

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Fulbright Scholar Program