International Faculty Researchers

College of Aviation

  • Gil Sinclair—Globally engaged aviation program helps developing countries spread wings.

College of Arts and Sciences

  • Jeffrey Angles—Japanese language, culture and literature is the focus of this professor, author, translator and study abroad faculty director.
  • Jim Butterfield—Post-Cold War Russia has provided WMU political science professor Dr. Jim Butterfield with an exceptional model for conducting research on transition environments and the role civic initiative plays in defining the public agenda and addressing collective action dilemmas.
  • William W. Cobern—Distinguished University Professor of Science Education and Biological Sciences and director of the Mallinson Institute for Science Education, spent five months in Turkey fall 2011 conducting research and giving lectures on methods for effective instruction for the teaching of science.
  • Jacqueline EngEvidence of what might be an ancient funerary defleshing ritual found in human-made caves in the Upper Mustang region of Nepal has been discovered by WMU bio-archaeologist Dr. Jacqueline Eng as a member of a research team that is funded in part by the National Geographic Society.
  • Ann Miles—Touching saltwater marks at the waterline of a cargo ship in Lake Michigan when she was just nine years old planted the question in the mind of Dr. Ann Miles: Where has this ship been?
  • Victor Xiong—History of early Imperial China captivates the interest of this WMU historian.

Haworth College of Business

  • Inayat Mangla—Captivated by the economic culture he encountered in the mid-1970s while studying in the United States as a Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Inayat U. Mangla, a native of Lahore, Pakistan, joined Western Michigan University’s faculty in 1985 and has become an internationally recognized expert on global financial markets.
  • Ann Veeck—rapidly changing food consumption patterns in China has for the last 15 years captured the attention of Western Michigan University international researcher and marketing professor Dr. Ann Veeck.

  • Gregory Veeck—professor of geography, has completed extensive international research specializing in economic geography, agriculture, rural development and rural environmental/ecological issues in the United States, China, Japan, and Korea.

College of Education and Human Development

  • Donna Talbot—Professor helps launch Ph.D. program designed to boost the Dominican Republic's education system.

College of Engineering and Applied Sciences

  • Ala Al-Fuqaha—A wide range of road safety and driver assistive applications— Intelligent Transport Systems—could result from a collaborative research project that Dr. Ala Al-Fuqaha, WMU professor of computer science, is working on with Dr. Elyes Hamida at the Qatar Mobility Innovation Center and Dr. Bharat Bhargava at Purdue University.
  • Steve Durbin—Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation to explore the synthesis and characterization of a new semiconductor (ZnSnN2) comprised solely of earth-abundant elements, Durbin and his students are involved in a collaborative research project with partners in the United Kingdom, Finland, and New Zealand, as well as Colorado, Michigan and Florida.

College of Fine Arts

  • Alex Cannon—A chance introduction to a largely unknown genre of Vietnamese royal court music that Dr. Alexander Cannon experienced while majoring in economics and music as an undergraduate forged an interest that changed the trajectory of his intended career path from analyzing economic trends to becoming an ethnomusicologist and an expert on don ca tai tu.
  • Albert Lavergne, Fulbrighter (emeritus)—Creating sculptures in Nigeria that celebrate the power of reading by individuals and as a family activity is the focus of a Fulbright project Professor Emeritus Albert LaVergne will begin in August 2016.
  • Ed Roth—Can listening to and making music be effectively used in the treatment of people diagnosed with neurologic and psychiatric disorders? Yes, and researchers around the world are engaged in helping Dr. Ed Roth discover just exactly how that occurs.

  • Leon Sun— Living and working in two countries provided a cultural contrast that has greatly inspired and influenced the art and design of Yuanliang (Leon) Sun, an associate professor of art at Western Michigan University.

  • Patrick Wilson—New urban developments in the growing city of Chongqing, China have captured the imagination of Artist Patrick D. Wilson, a Western Michigan University assistant professor of sculpture and integrated media, whose art work is often influenced by architectural imagery.

College of Health and Human Services

  • Yvette Hyter—In November 2013, Dr. Hyter was named a fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association at the association's annual convention. One the highest honors the association awards, the fellowship distinguishes Hyter as an exemplary professional and recognizes her outstanding contributions to the discipline of communication sciences and disorders.
  • Debra Lindstrom—Sabbatical work in Bangladesh widens perspectives for WMU OT professor.