Steinbruner Student Support Fund
The John Steinbruner Endowed Student Support Fund honors the legacy of the former professor and director of the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM). Established by his former students, the fund provides resources for undergraduate and graduate students at the School of Public Policy to engage in field research, conferences, workshops and other professional development opportunities. Reflecting Steinbruner’s intellectual curiosity and generosity of spirit, the fund empowers students to pursue research and dialogue that advance cooperative approaches to complex global challenges.
The Steinbruner Student Support Fund has enabled SPP students to overcome hardships and pursue new opportunities. Previously, students have traveled from Afghanistan to study at the School of Public Policy, delivered a research presentation in Russian during a Boren fellowship in Kazakhstan and represented CISSM as a delegate to a conference on establishing a Weapons-of-Mass-Destruction-free zone in the Middle East. More recently, the fund made it possible for a team of SPP students to compete in the Army War College's annual strategy competition, present research at a conference on Russian and Eastern European Studies and conduct international fieldwork for their MPP capstone projects.
About John Steinbruner
Steinbruner was a professor at the School of Public Policy and served as CISSM director from 1999 to 2015. As a valued part of the SPP and CISSM community, Steinbruner was known as a colleague who loved engaging in spirited conversations about security policy, listened carefully to questions and different points of view and challenged others to rethink the assumptions that lay beneath their analysis. Prior to UMD, he held distinguished academic and policy positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Yale University and the Brookings Institution. Committed to public service, he also served as co-chair of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Committee on International and Security Studies and chair of the Arms Control Association’s Board of Directors. Steinbruner’s enduring commitment to students and colleagues was emblematic of his intellectual curiosity and the generosity of spirit that he displayed throughout his professional and personal life.
Learn more about Steinbruner’s life and legacy.