ATHENS, Ohio -- The Fulbright Scholar Program is offering lecturing/research awards in some 140 countries for the 2003-04 academic year.

Opportunities are available for college and university faculty and administrators, professionals from business and government, artists, journalists, scientists, lawyers, independent scholars and many others. There are awards in 37 disciplines and professional fields, as well as in a variety of subdisciplines such as gender studies and peace studies.

Traditional Fulbright awards are available for periods from two months to an academic year or longer. A new short-term grants program, the Fulbright Senior Specialists Program, offers two- to six-week grants in a variety of disciplines and fields.

Foreign language skills are needed in some countries; most Fulbright lecturing assignments are in English. Some 80 percent of the awards are for lecturing.

Application deadlines for 2003-2004 awards are:

• May 1 for Fulbright Distinguished Chair awards in Europe, Canada and Russia
• Aug. 1 for Fulbright traditional lecturing and research grants worldwide
• Nov. 1 for the summer German Studies Seminar and for spring/summer seminars in Germany, Korea and Japan for academic and international education administrators
• The Fulbright Senior Specialists Program has a rolling deadline

For information, contact the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES) at 3007 Tilden St., N.W., Suite 5L, Washington, D.C. 20008-3009. Telephone: (202) 686-7877; e-mail apprequest@cies.iie.org. Information and an electronic application are also available on the Web at www.cies.org.

The Fulbright Scholar Program is sponsored by the United States Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.