MSU Professor Emeritus named Fulbright Scholar

Rene Hinojosa, professor emeritus of urban & regional planning in the School of Planning, Design and Construction at Michigan State University, has been named a Fulbright Scholar.

Photo of Professor Emeritus Rene Hinojosa at fish ponds in Bolivia.
Rene Hinojosa, professor emeritus of urban & regional planning, visiting fish ponds in Bolivia.

Rene Hinojosa, professor emeritus of urban & regional planning in the School of Planning, Design and Construction at Michigan State University, has been named a Fulbright Scholar.

Hinojosa is a two-time recipient of the Fulbright award, and he is the second URP faculty member this year to receive this honor!

Peilei Fan, associate professor of URP and the Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, was also named a Fulbright Scholar.

Hinojosa will teach engineering, architectural and other interested students in Bolivia the foundations of urban transportation planning.

He will engage with practicing professionals and share some of the contemporary tools for transportation management, which he hopes will help to improve quality of life in Latin American cities.

Additionally, he plans to reach out to local governments and municipalities for their participation in building a computer model to address their transportation planning needs.

According to Hinojosa, “urban growth in many Latin American cities is reaching levels high above the functional capacity of existing urban transportation facilities.

He explained, “The problems are born not only from population growth and the increase of the number of vehicles in the circulation, but also from the lack of planning and proper management of existing infrastructure.”

Hinojosa, who is also adjunct professor emeritus of the Department of Geography and the Institute of International Health, is the former acting director of the Julian Samora Research Institute and former chair of the Department of Geography. He received his doctorate in planning from the University of Washington.

He is an accomplished and published scholar who has taught quantitative research techniques, transportation planning, regional economic analysis, housing and urbanization in developing counties.

Hinojosa has also organized several study abroad programs in Argentina, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Italy, Japan and Mexico.

The highly coveted Fulbright grants are issued by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, to foster international academic exchange.

The Fulbright is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Each year, about 1,200 U.S. scholars study in 155 countries.

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