Germany

Background

Cassing was a visiting professor of economics at the Chemnitz Technical University in Chemnitz, Germany, in the summers of 1998 and 2005. He was also the Commerzbank Visiting Professor of Economics at the same university in July of 2000 and the summer of 2003.

With expertise in international trade theory and policy as well as international finance and development, Cassing has advised governments on policy reform packages in Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, Kenya, and South Africa. He is the author of Capital, Technology, and Labor in the New Global Economy (Aei Pr, 1989) and a contributing author for Trade Disputes and the Dispute Settlement Understanding of the WTO: An Interdisciplinary Assessment (Cambridge University Press, 2001). Cassing also serves on the editorial board of The Journal of International Trade and Economic Development.

Background

Weidman was educated at Princeton University and the University of Chicago. He has written extensively on higher-education reform in countries undergoing the transition from command to market economies.

Weidman spent the summer of 1964 as a Werkstudent at the Wesphalische Metall Industrie (Hela) in Lippstadt, Germany. In 1986-87, he was a Fulbright Scholar and visiting professor at Augsburg University. He has presented his research at various conferences in Germany, participated in a study tour of several German companies with educational leaders from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and published on the German dual system of vocational education. Weidman has consulted for the German Academic Exchange Service on the design of a national higher-education accreditation agency in Mongolia.

Background

Sbragia's career accomplishments include being designated as a Jean Monnet Chair ad personam, recognition given by the European Union to elite American academicians whose careers exemplify excellence in teaching and research related to the European Union. She is internationally renowned for her European scholarship.

From 1993 to 1995, Sbragia chaired the European Community Studies Association, the foremost national association for experts in the field. Because of her leadership, the association is now headquartered at Pitt.

She is the author of four books: Comparative Regionalism in an Age of Globalization; Debt Wish: Entrepreneurial Cities, U.S. Federalism, and Economic Development (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996); Euro-Politics: Politics and Policymaking in the "New" European Community (Edited book, Brookings Institution, 1992), largely credited with initiating a new wave of scholarly work in the United States on the topic of European integration; and The Municipal Money Chase: The Politics of Local Government Finance (Edited book, Westview Press, 1983). In addition, she has authored more than 50 articles and presented nearly 200 papers and speeches around the world.