<p>Seven UF faculty members will be spread among three continents this academic year as they lecture and do research with the Fulbright Scholar Program. </p>
<p>The program sends 800 American researchers abroad each year to lecture and conduct research in a variety of fields. It also funds researchers visiting the United States from other countries. </p>
<p>Five international faculty members - from Senegal to Norway - are teaching at UF this year on Fulbright grants. </p>
<p>"The University of Florida is proud both to be the home for these recipients and to be the home of faculty who attract awardees from other countries," UF Provost Janie Fouke said in a press release. "Our students are the ultimate winners, though, because they have the opportunity to interact with folks who are among the most accomplished in the world." </p>
<p>Maria Rogal, a UF art and art history professor, is in M鲩da, Mexico, researching and teaching a class about Mayan rights and culture. She received the Fulbright-Garcia Robles grant. </p>
<p>"I love the culture, which is a mix of Yucatecan, Mayan and Mexican - the heat, intense color, hot and spicy food, the relaxed attitude of people, the language, sleeping in a hammock, and the sense of ritual, celebration and struggle on a daily level." </p>
<p>She is conducting interviews to explore that confluence of cultures in the context of art, she wrote in an e-mail. </p>
<p>Rogal plans to bring a rich knowledge of Mexico to her UF students when she returns. </p>
<p>"It's been an amazing few months so far with more to come," she wrote. </p>
<p>Adrian Roitberg, a UF professor of chemistry, went to Buenos Aires to lecture and research Chagas' disease. He taught his class during the summer, unlike most UF professors, who will be abroad during the academic year. </p>
<p>Chagas' is a potentially fatal disease caused by a parasite carried by cockroaches. It affects 17 million people in Latin America. Roitberg said his research could help find a cure. </p>
<p>He hopes that some of his students will go to Buenos Aires to continue his research and some of his former Brazilian colleagues will come to UF. </p>
<p>He said the attitudes of Brazilian students were refreshingly different. </p>
<p>"Students tend to stop you in the middle of class and ask you questions instead of just sitting in class and taking notes," he said. "I like that much better." </p>
<p>The Fulbright program was established in 1946 by the U.S. Congress to "enable the government of the United States to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries," according to its Web site. </p>