Six professors from the University of Utah have been named Fulbright Scholars for the 2026-27 academic year: Shane Macfarlan, associate professor; Tyler Faith, professor and chief curator of the Natural History Museum of Utah; Jon Fisk, associate professor; Udita Gupta, associate professor and Barbara Jones, M.D.and Luis Ibarra, assistant professor.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and administered by the Institute of International Education, the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program selects over 800 U.S. scholars to teach or conduct research in institutions around the world, building connections through international collaboration.

The prestigious honor recognizes professors’ academic excellence and leadership potential. Recipients’ time spent abroad is marked by groundbreaking research, innovative teaching and valuable international connections.

Shane Macfarlan

Shane Macfarlan has been awarded a scholarship to teach and conduct research in Mexico at Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur. As a cultural anthropologist, Macfarlan studies the relationships between environment and culture—both how the environment constrains the development of culture and how one’s culture influences the ways they interact with the natural world. He plans to spend his time in Mexico learning more about the threats and opportunities to traditional ranching culture in Baja California Sur (BCS).

His research comes at a time when many ranchers face environmental and economic hardship. Traditional ranchers in BCS live in a harsh desert without infrastructure, which means they live off their local environment. With recent changes to their environment, such as droughts, ranchers are migrating to urban areas, creating new developments in culture.

His teaching during this time will include topics such as cultural anthropology methods and the cultural history of the Baja California Peninsula, and many of his students will come from ranching backgrounds. “One benefit of being in Mexico in-person is that I will be able to deliver important information about local culture, ecology and sustainability directly to the people who are impacted by these topics the most, in the language they use,” says Macfarlan.

Spending time in Mexico will also open up new opportunities for University of Utah students and scholars. “The kinds of problems that ranchers deal with in Utah are very similar to the problems that ranchers deal with in BCS,” says Macfarlan. “I want to be a bridge who can help connect people with each other and share ideas.”

Tyler Faith

Tyler Faith will be working with the University of Witwatersrand to continue his ongoing research in the Cango Valley of South Africa. As a paleoecologist, he studies interactions between fossil organisms and their environment. Using fossils (and other geological, archeological and chemical evidence), Faith tries to understand the relationship between climate change, ecosystems and human evolution, specifically in Africa. For instance, he wants to know more about how environmental change has shaped human evolution as well as when humans began to have major impacts on the environment.

As Faith explains, “South Africa is the birthplace of human origins research in Africa,” but most of the fossil evidence comes from a handful of sites near Johannesburg, leaving the rest of the country relatively unstudied. Several years ago, Faith discovered dozens of caves located in the Cango Valley, and when he explored them, he found fossils everywhere.

His time in South Africa as a Fulbright Scholar will provide him with uninterrupted time to further explore these caves and delve more deeply into his fieldwork. He’ll work with local collaborators and students to expand the fossil records of these caves, and he’ll also simultaneously be helping to build a more formal paleo-science teaching and training program in the area.

“I’m excited to have an opportunity to spend half a year in South Africa, where I can build more meaningful connections with students, scientists and the local community,” says Faith. “Working together, I’m hoping we can get the ball rolling on the next 100 years of work!”

Jon Fisk

Jon Fisk will travel to Vaasa, Finland, to collaborate with the University of Vaasa on research examining the governance of data centers—especially related to energy and water consumption and innovation—and how this emerging infrastructure impacts communities. His primary research interests center on energy and water policy, specifically studying how we can deliver energy and clean water in ways that are efficient, affordable, reliable and environmentally responsible.

Vaasa is considered the Nordic Energy Capital and is a leading site for clean energy and digital innovation. The university plays a pivotal role in this change and the broader energy policy ecosystem throughout the region. Much of this work is impacted by data centers. They can offer critical insights about how a proposed policy impacts energy and water use, but to do so, they consume large amounts of energy and water.

As Fisk conducts his research, he will be exploring data center governance issues relating to water and energy consumption and innovation, how environmental and affordability concerns are being addressed and how overall impacts on quality of life are being addressed. “For me, Vaasa represents a unique opportunity to learn from folks on the ground; to exchange ideas, research and information and to highlight what we do here in Utah,” says Fisk.

He hopes to spend his time in Finland not just learning more about environmental policy in the area, but also serving as a cultural ambassador and representative of the School of Public Affairs. “I’m hoping to lay the foundation for a long-term collaboration between students and faculty at the U with their counterparts at the University of Vaasa.”

Udita Gupta

Udita Gupta, a professor in the College of Education, will travel to India to help transform STEM teacher preparation through culturally responsive, inquiry-driven and technology-enhanced pedagogy. Her university partner in India is still being finalized, but her work will include delivering student-centered secondary mathematics instruction, co-developing culturally responsive curriculum modules with Indian faculty and integrating artificial intelligence and global best practices in India’s secondary teacher preparation programs.

Gupta’s main research focus centers on incorporating globally competent and culturally responsive methods in pre-service teacher education courses so that pre-service teachers can appropriately address the needs of their students. For instance, her work as a Martha Bradley Evans Teaching Fellow created a virtual exchange partnership with Vietnam that allowed her to investigate how pre-service teachers develop cross-cultural competence and create impactful lessons for their students. The fellowship also helped pre-service teachers embed reflective practices with AI and integrate United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into their instruction.

For Gupta, being in India will mean having the chance to personally collaborate with Indian faculty to co-develop and pilot new secondary mathematics curricula. “Being in India in person is essential for building authentic, trust-based partnerships with faculty and teachers, observing classroom practices firsthand and co-developing curriculum that is truly responsive to local contexts,” says Gupta. “Face-to-face collaboration allows for deeper mentorship, real-time feedback during teaching demonstrations and more meaningful professional development workshops than remote engagement alone could achieve.”

Barbara Jones

Dr. Barbara Jones, a pulmonary and critical care physician at University of Utah Health and the VA Salt Lake City Healthcare System, has received the Fulbright Scholar Award in Medical Sciences. She will travel to Australia to learn how local health systems are using telehealth and digital technology to support people during pneumonia recovery, especially in rural areas.

Her current research focuses on using health data to improve pneumonia care and outcomes for all patients in all settings, and she hopes to use this opportunity to develop ways for clinicians to use telehealth to measure important patient outcomes, such as mobility.

Pneumonia is responsible for over one million emergency department visits every year in the US, but despite how common it is, recovery can still be prolonged. Even after patients leave the hospital, some take over six months to regain function. Jones’s work will further her goal of ensuring that every patient receives high-quality care, regardless of where they live.

“I am incredibly honored for this opportunity to work with clinicians and health care systems in Australia,” Jones says. “Australia is an amazing country with a lot of places that are similar to the western United States. They have some of the best health outcomes in the world. We have a lot to learn about how to help people recover from pneumonia, especially in rural settings.”

Luis Ibarra

Luis Ibarra’s Fulbright scholarship will see him teach and conduct research at Japan’s Nagoya University. A civil engineer who studies how buildings respond to earthquakes, Ibarra will contribute to ongoing experiments at the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention and its state-of-the-art “E-Defense” research facilities. There, life-sized model buildings—as tall as ten stories—are shaken under controlled conditions while their structural performance is monitored.

These large-scale experiments are expensive and labor-intensive, but they provide unique data on buildings’ nonlinear structural performance under earthquakes. Ibarra’s research will combine these experimental data with machine learning methodologies to integrate high-fidelity experimental test results with low-fidelity data generated from numerical simulations. The resulting models will enable engineers to make more accurate predictions of how new and existing buildings will perform during future seismic events.

Ibarra will also teach modules of undergraduate and graduate courses on structural engineering and offer several seminars at different institutions in Japan. The project’s goals include enhancing cross-cultural teaching by exposing Japanese students to U.S. approaches and integrating Japanese methods into U.S. classrooms.

“E-Defense is a unique resource, so this project will strengthen U.S.-Japan collaborations and expand access to the large-scale experimental dataset it produces,” says Ibarra. “Ultimately, we want to design safer, more resilient buildings, and to advance earthquake engineering through international collaboration.”