Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. The self-declared mission of Rotary, as stated on its website, is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through [the] fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders". It is a non-political and non-religious organization. Membership is by application or invitation and based on various social factors. There are over 46,000 member clubs worldwide, with a membership of 1.4 million individuals, known as Rotarians.
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills. Via the program, competitively-selected American citizens including students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists, and artists may receive scholarships or grants to study, conduct research, teach, or exercise their talents abroad; and citizens of other countries may qualify to do the same in the United States.
Rotary International offers a number of scholarships worldwide for periods of 3 months, 6 months, 1 year and 2 years.
The Thouron Award is a postgraduate scholarship established in 1960 by Sir John R. H. Thouron, K.B.E., and Esther du Pont Thouron. It is generally regarded as one of the most prestigious and competitive academic awards globally, alongside the Oxford Rhodes and Stanford Knight-Hennessy Scholars programs. It was created to strengthen the "special relationship" between the United States and the United Kingdom through educational exchange between British universities and the University of Pennsylvania. Through the programme the Thourons sought to nourish and develop Anglo-American friendship by ensuring that, in the years to come, a growing number of the leading citizens of these two countries would have a thorough understanding of their trans-Atlantic neighbours. In the years since its founding, the Thouron Award has sponsored programs of graduate study for more than 650 fellows, known as Thouron Scholars.
Václav (Vašek) Chvátal is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and a visiting professor at Charles University in Prague. He has published extensively on topics in graph theory, combinatorics, and combinatorial optimization.
Daniel Meyer was born in Cleveland, Ohio and has been conductor and musical director of several prominent American orchestras.
Dave Kellett is the creator and cartoonist of two webcomic titles, Sheldon and Drive, the co-author of How To Make Webcomics and the co-host of Comic Lab. He has been nominated for the prestigious Eisner Awards, as well as a Harvey Award, and won a Reuben Award.
Louise Ann Dolan is an American mathematical physicist and professor of physics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She does research in theoretical particle physics, gauge theories, gravity, and string theory, and is generally considered to be one of the foremost experts worldwide in this field. Her work is at the forefront of particle physics today.
Sophie Tendai Chandauka MBE is a Zimbabwe-born corporate finance lawyer, entrepreneur and Head of Americas Risk Management and Intelligence at Meta. Previously, Chandauka was Global COO of Shared Services and Banking Operations at Morgan Stanley based in New York and prior to this, she was CAO of the Legal and Compliance Division of Morgan Stanley in EMEA, based in London. Before joining Morgan Stanley, she was the Head of Group Treasury (Legal) at Virgin Money in London. She began her career as a corporate finance lawyer and Senior Associate at Baker McKenzie in London. Apart from her professional achievements, she is recognised in the United Kingdom for her community work as an advocate for education, equality, diversity and inclusion and also as a mentor for young entrepreneurs and aspiring lawyers.
Aspen Mays is an American artist.
Christine Elizabeth Holt is a British developmental neuroscientist.
The Rotary Foundation is a non-profit corporation that supports the efforts of Rotary International to achieve world understanding and peace through international humanitarian, educational, and cultural exchange programs. It is supported solely by voluntary contributions.
Janet Marie Chvatal is an American classical soprano and musical theatre singer, director and author, best known for her production and charity work in Germany and for her creation of the role of Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the world-premiere of the German musical Ludwig².
William John Cook is an American operations researcher and mathematician, and Professor of Combinatorics and Optimization at the University of Waterloo.
Christine Darden is an American mathematician, data analyst, and aeronautical engineer who devoted much of her 40-year career in aerodynamics at NASA to researching supersonic flight and sonic booms. She had an M.S. in mathematics and had been teaching at Virginia State University before starting to work at the Langley Research Center in 1967. She earned a Ph.D. in engineering at George Washington University in 1983 and has published numerous articles in her field. She was the first African-American woman at NASA's Langley Research Center to be promoted to the Senior Executive Service, the top rank in the federal civil service.
Nitish Chandra Laharry (1892–1964) was an Indian lawyer, social worker and film producer from Kolkata. He was the first person of Asian origin to be elected as the president of Rotary International and was the producer of the first motion picture of Bengal, Bilat Ferat. It was during his presidency that Rotary International started its Youth wing, Interact Club. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1963, for his contributions to society.
Beryl Scott Nashar was an Australian geologist, academic and first female Dean at an Australian university.
Thảo Griffiths was born in 1978 in Ha Giang, Vietnam. From 2007 to 2016 she was Country Director for Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF) - an American Non-Governmental Organization which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 with close partnership with the Ministry of Defense of Vietnam on banning landmines.
Elizabeth Jens is an Australian propulsion engineer who works at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Hope S. Rugo is professor of medicine and the director of the breast oncology clinical trials program at the University of California at San Francisco, and an investigator of SPORE in the Bay Area.
