Dr. Michael Vuolo, associate professor of sociology,has been notified that he is the recipient of a prestigious 2018-2019 Fulbright-Schuman European Union Affairs Program Award.  This award is designed to strengthen relationships between the U.S. and EU member nations by promoting international research and cooperation. The Fulbright Scholar Program is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars and is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.

Dr. Vuolo will conduct research in Croatia, France and Portugal for his project titled, “EU-U.S. Approaches to Substance Use in a Context of Evolving Policy.” He will be affiliated with the Government of the Republic of Croatia’s Office of Combating Drug Abuse in February 2019, the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction in March 2019 and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addition from April-June 2019.  His goals abroad will be to learn from recent and established country drug data collection agencies, Croatia and France respectively, and the central drug data gathering point, the EMCDDA. Vuolo will also analyze the effects of policy and social context on substance use and examine opportunities for EU-U.S. drug data harmonization.  “A simple question guides his research proposal: What drug policies work to improve public health and public safety?” Vuolo said. “There is incredible variation in both drug use and drug policy across countries in the EU and states within the U.S., which provides an opportunity to address this research question. In many ways, the EU is ahead of the U.S. in its data collection and harmonization. Thus, the research will also provide a template to bring back to the U.S. in terms of improving data collection and informing policy.”