I benefited from the Fulbright Program at least twice in my life. First, I was awarded a travel grant in the late 1980s in order to help fund my research stint at Harvard Law School. Second, I received a scholarship in the 1990s that facilitated research for my second PhD thesis ("Habilitation", more precisely). Both grants helped me to establish connections with American law schools. As a result of a very unpredictable development, I ended up being a Law Professor -- invested even with a chair -- at the University of Iowa College of Law from 2003–2015. I returned to Austria this year and do, of course, miss being at a well-organized American law school and being part of its intellectual culture. Yet, the gravity of home was hard to resist.

P.S.: The portrait (picture attached) was painted by the Cedar Rapids based painter Peter Thompson and will be part of the faculty gallery at the College of Law of the University of Iowa.

Dr. Alexander Somek was an Austrian Fulbright Scholar of Law in 1987-88 to Harvard Law School, in 1992–93 to the University of Kansas and in 1997–98 to the University of Pennsylvania. Photo of a painting by Peter Thompson courtesy of Dr. Alexander Somek.