A delegation comprised of senior faculty and administration from The School of Medicine at Stanford University in the U.S.A. visited IUB from December 17 – 23, 2009 to explore the possibility of initiating joint research and academic collaborations between the two institutions.  Members of the visiting delegation included Dr. Michele Barry, Senior Associate Dean for Global Health and Director of Global Health Programs in Medicine, Dr. Ralph Horwitz, Chairman of the Department of Medicine, Dr. Mark Cullen, Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, and Ms. Minjung Kwok, Vice Chair of Strategy at the Department of Medicine.  The visit was a result of initial dialogue and extensive communication with various members of the Stanford faculty and administration that were initiated in October, 2008 by Professor Omar Rahman, Pro-Vice Chancellor, and Executive Director for the Center for Health, Population and Development (CHPD), IUB and Dr. Rita Yusuf, Asst. Professor, School of Envtl. Science & Mgmt. (SESM), IUB.  The initial engagement has since led to the submission of a joint grant proposal by members of the IUB faculty, Professor Rahman, Dr. Yusuf, and Dr. Ali S. Sabbir, Asst. Professor in the School of Eng. And Comp. Sci. (SECS), and a Stanford medical student as well as visits to IUB by other Stanford faculty, and substantive discussions regarding inter-university faculty research collaborations.