NTNU: US ambassador to Norway visits campus

The American ambassador to Norway Barry White visited Trondheim on Monday 18 January to meet local and county officials, along with representatives from NTNU and SINTEF, and spoke to about 200 NTNU students at the Dragvoll campus.

White said he thinks that his primary job in Norway is to improve business relationships between to two countries and, “to bring people together,” including finding a way to bring more Americans to study in Norway.

This will include increasing in the number of exchanges funded through the Fulbright Scholars programme, and the inauguration this year of a new programme called the Fulbright Arctic Chairs. The arctic programme sends a Norwegian Arctic scientist to the US for three months and brings an American arctic scientist to Norway for the same time period.

It has been funded by with a 4-year, NOK 6 million (€740,000) grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. White said record low levels of arctic ice in the summers of 2007, 2008 and 2009 illustrated the problems being brought on by global climate change and underscored the importance of improving humankind’s understanding of the arctic.