Pimentel Awarded Fulbright U.S. Scholar for 2026-2027 for France

Pimentel Awarded Fulbright U.S. Scholar for 2026-2027 for France Alex Coughlin Tue, 07/21/2026 - 11:56Pimentel Awarded Fulbright U.S. Scholar for 2026-2027 for France

Jul 17, 2026

The Institute of International Education and the Fulbright Program have selected faculty member Sam Pimentel as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar for 2026-2027 for France. Pimentel will spend the year hosted by the Université de Montpellier.​

The Franco-American Fulbright Commission administers the program on behalf of the French and U.S. governments. The Fulbright France Program, jointly sponsored by the U.S. and French governments, offers U.S. and French citizens the opportunity to study, teach, or conduct research in the partner country. The program is open to all academic fields. Selection is based primarily on the quality of the candidate and the proposed project. Preference is given to applicants who have not previously spent a long period in the US. Fulbright grants are designed to foster new academic and professional connections rather than support existing collaborations. Diversity of disciplines, professional backgrounds, and host institutions is also an important consideration.

The Franco-American Fulbright Commission was established in 1948 to foster leadership, learning, and empathy between the United States and France. Today, the Commission provides grants for its grantees to study and conduct research in the United States or in France, thanks to funding from the French government, through the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Higher Education and Research, and the American government through the United States Department of State.Pimentel’s research focuses on developing statistical methods for causal inference in large-scale observational studies, particularly using discrete optimization to generate well-matched comparison groups. By designing more transparent and interpretable methods for analyzing complex datasets, his work helps researchers better understand the effects of specific interventions while accounting for potential unobserved confounding variables. These methods are frequently applied to fields such as health services research, public policy, and the social sciences, including studies on surgical outcomes and opioid use disorder. He is also a core faculty member of the Computational Precision Health program jointly with UC Berkeley and UCSF.