On December 3, Ambassador Mariangela Zappia and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, Matthew Lussenhop, opened the seminar titled “Fulbright Fellows’ Contribution to the Fight against Covid-19” hosted at the Embassy’s Auditorium in Washington DC in occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Fulbright Program, in the year that also marks the 160th anniversary of Italy-US diplomatic relations.

Italy was among the first countries to join the Fulbright Program in 1948. Since then, almost 14,000 Italian and US scholars have benefitted from the international program, making it one of the pillars of Italy-US collaboration. Today, the Program provides approximately 100 Fulbright scholarships each year for Italian and U.S. citizens to study, teach, and conduct research in each other’s countries.