Sixteen Penn Staters — 11 students and five faculty members — were awarded Fulbrights for 2013-2014.

This is a pretty big deal, considering that 45 former Fulbrighters have won the Nobel Prize, 28 have been awarded MacArthur Fellowships, 80 have won Pulitzers, and 29 have served as heads of state or government.

The Fulbright program is the U.S. government’s “flagship international educational exchange program,” administered by the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Each year, it awards approximately 8,000 grants — about 1,600 to U.S. students and 1,200 to U.S. scholars — to individuals that have proven their “academic merit and leadership potential.”

The 16 Penn Staters received Fulbright grants in two categories:

• The Fulbright U.S. Student Program, which is geared toward students that wish to study, research, or teach abroad for a year;
• The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, which is geared toward university faculty that wish to lecture or research in “approximately 125 countries,” according to the Department of State.

With 11 students receiving grants, Penn State is tied with Johns Hopkins and NYU as the 29th-best producer of Fulbright Students among U.S. research institutions.

As for production of Fulbright Scholars among U.S. research institutions, Penn State is tied for 10th-best, with five faculty members receiving grants. Penn State had previously ranked first in this category in both 2011-2012 and in 2012-2013. In 2011-2012, the university produced an astronomical 14 Fulbright Scholars, five more than the next largest producer, the University of Kansas.

Congratulations are in order for the 11 Fulbright Students: Stephen Mooney, Zachary Jones, Dana James, Michael Henry, Eric Dyrdahl, Cassa Romanowski, Jessica Skocik, Dana Ray, William Langford, Mary Katerman and Peter van Lidth de Jeude. Congrats to the Fulbright Scholars among the faculty, too: Daniel Hade, Eric Hayot, Anil Kulkarni, Eric Nord, and Robert Weaver.