Two Indian American academicians - Raju G.C. Thomas and Irfan A. Omar - have been named Fulbright Scholars for 2005-06.

Thomas is professor of political science and Allis-Chalmers distinguished professor of international affairs while Omar is assistant professor of theology at Marquette University in Wisconsin, US.

As part of the scholarship, Thomas, a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, will travel to Serbia and Montenegro as a visiting professor at the University of Belgrade for the full academic year, a university release said.

"He will teach several political science courses dealing with foreign policy, international economic issues, world conflict and security. Thomas will also create a new international security research seminar," the release said.

Professor Omar, an associate editor of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, will travel to Muhammadiyah Malang University in Malang, Indonesia, for a five-month teaching and research position.

"Omar will offer courses dealing with comparative studies of religion and traditions of pluralism practised in Indonesia and the US as well as lead reflections on the roles Muslims play in the world," the release said.

During his academic career, Thomas has been a Ford Foundation Fellow and adjunct fellow at the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University and a visiting scholar at the Defense and Arms Control Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined Marquette in 1976 and became the Allis-Chalmers Professor in 2000.

Thomas has a postgraduate degree in industrial economics from University of Bombay, India. He also studied at the London School of Economics. His published works include more than 30 journal articles and more than 40 book chapters on issues of security, foreign policy and nuclear proliferation.
 
Omar graduated in liberal arts from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University. He has a master's degree in religion studies from Temple University in Philadelphia and a master's degree in religious studies from Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. He earned his Ph.D. in religion from Temple University and joined Marquette in 2002.

Omar's areas of study are the history of religions and South Asian and Islamic studies. He works in Urdu, Hindi, Arabic and Persian and has presented numerous papers and published several works.

--Indo-Asian News Service