College of Charleston associate biology professor Andrew Shedlock has been named to the Fulbright Specialist Program for a three-year appointment, the university announced. The State Department program places U.S. academics with host institutions overseas for short, focused engagements rather than the semester-long postings that define the flagship Fulbright Scholar award.
Shedlock is scheduled to travel to Hanoi University of Science and Technology in Vietnam during the College’s winter break and to return to campus in January to teach the spring 2027 semester. His assignment centers on training Vietnamese faculty and students to use artificial intelligence to analyze large datasets and produce outcomes that address environmental and sustainability questions.
The appointment is funded through the Fulbright Freedom 250 initiative, a State Department framework tied to the country’s 250th anniversary that emphasizes STEM instruction abroad. Shedlock’s research background is in marine genomics, molecular biology and biodiversity, and the Vietnam placement is aligned with the host university’s engineering and environmental faculties.
This is the second Fulbright honor for the biology professor, who previously received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar award in 2016. Unlike that earlier award, the Specialist appointment allows for multiple shorter engagements at the same institution over the three-year term rather than a single continuous stay.
The College of Charleston places a small number of faculty in Fulbright programs each year, and biology has featured prominently among departments with international placements. Shedlock’s assignment adds AI-in-STEM instruction to that pipeline at a moment when Vietnamese universities are rapidly expanding data-science curricula in engineering and environmental fields.
