Dr. Stephen F. Maxner, who has served as director of the Vietnam Center at Texas Tech University (TTU) since July 2007, was appointed chairman of its board of directors.

VEF was created as a special initiative by the US Congress to bring the US and Vietnam closer through educational exchanges related to science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and technology.

In its sixth year of operations, the VEF Fellowship program has placed 267 fellows at 68 top US graduate schools, mostly for doctoral degrees, according to the VEF.