The 2013 MacArthur Fellows
September 27, 2013
The
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has just announced its
2013 Fellows Class. MacArthur Fellowships have been awarded to twenty-four people this year, of whom twelve work in
STEM fields.[1] I wrote about last year's Fellows Class in a
previous article (MacArthur 2012 Scientists, October 5, 2012).
Unlike prizes such as the
Nobel Prize which are awarded for accomplishment, the MacArthur Fellowships are awarded for potential. The stated purpose of the fellowships is to allow the fellows an opportunity to "exercise their own creative instincts for the benefit of human society."[2] This year's fellows receive a "no strings attached" award of $625,000, which is paid out in equal quarterly installments over five years.[2]
There are some familiar names in science among past years' fellows, and I presented a short list in a
previous article (MacArthur Fellows 2010, October 5, 2010). A
biographical note for each of this year's STEM-field recipients appears below.
Interestingly, there are an equal number of men and women, and there's even one in my profession of
materials science. Clicking on a photograph will take you to the thumbnail biography in the text.
| The scientists in the MacArthur 2013 Fellows Program. Left to right by row, top row, Phil Baran, C. Kevin Boyce, Colin Camerer and Angela Duckworth; middle row, Craig Fennie, Carl Haber, Dina Katabi and David Lobell; bottom row, Susan Murphy, Sheila Nirenberg, Ana Maria Rey and Sara Seager. Photos licensed under a Creative Commons license, Courtesy of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. |
Phil Baran
Organic Chemist, Phil Baran (Age 36;
Ph.D.,
Scripps Research Institute, 2001), is a
professor in the
Department of Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute (
La Jolla, CA). Baran was a
postdoctoral associate at
Harvard University from 2001-2003.
Baran has been developing
synthesis techniques for
pharmacologically interesting compounds isolated from natural sources and important for their
antibacterial,
antiviral, and
tumor-inhibiting activity. He has synthesized
cortistatin A, a
steroidal alkaloid with potential for treatment of
macular degeneration and
cancer; and ouabagenin, a steroid for the treatment of
congestive heart failure.
C. Kevin Boyce
Paleobotanist, C. Kevin Boyce (Age 39; Ph.D., Harvard University, 2001), is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences at
Stanford University (
Stanford, CA). he held a
National Research Council Associateship with the
NASA Astrobiology Institute from 2001-2003, and he was with the
University of Chicago from 2003-2013.
Boyce's studies of
leaf vein density in
angiosperms demonstrated that their ability to cycle
water at much faster rates than other
plants was a factor in the formation of modern
rainforests.
Colin Camerer
Behavioral Economist, Colin Camerer (Age 53; Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1981), is a Professor of
Behavioral Economics at the
Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences of the
California Institute of Technology (
Pasadena, CA). Before joining Caltech in 1994, Camerer was at the University of Chicago (1991-1994), the
University of Pennsylvania (1983-1989), and
Northwestern University (1981-1983).
Camerer was a pioneer of
behavioral game theory, which models such human activities as
bargaining,
bluffing, and signaling, and its application to the emerging field of
neuroeconomics. This work leads to a better understanding of such economic phenomena as
savings,
consumption, and
market bubbles.
Angela Duckworth
Research Psychologist, Angela Duckworth (Age 43; Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 2006), is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Psychology of the University of Pennsylvania (
Philadelphia, PA). She was a
high school math and
science teacher before joining the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in 2007.
Duckworth studies
traits that predict success in life, two of which are "
grit," the tendency to persist in our efforts toward long-term goals; and
self-control. Her studies show that self-control predicts
report card grades better than
measured intelligence.
Craig Fennie
Materials Scientist, Craig Fennie (Age 40; Ph.D.,
Rutgers University, 2006), is an Assistant Professor at the
School of Applied and Engineering Physics of
Cornell University (
Ithaca, NY). Fennie was a postdoctoral fellow at
Argonne National Laboratory from 2006-2008 before joining the Cornell faculty.
Fennie is using a
first principles approach to the design of new
materials, and he works with
experimental physicists to test his
predictions. One of his predictions was that a stretched
europium-
titanium oxide would exhibit a strong coupling between its
electrical and
magnetic properties.
Carl Haber
Audio Preservationist, Carl Haber (Age 54; Ph.D.,
Columbia University, 1985), is a
Senior Scientist in the
Physics Division of
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (
Berkeley, CA). Haber has been with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for his entire professional career.
Haber has been developing technologies for the preservation of deteriorating
sound recordings on such media as
wax cylinders,
lacquer discs, and
tinfoil. Haber and his colleagues have developed a non-contact
optical method for extracting high-quality sound from degraded media. This method was used to extract the only known recording of
Alexander Graham Bell's voice.
Dina Katabi
Computer Scientist, Dina Katabi (Age 42; Ph.D.,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003), is a Professor in the
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (
Cambridge, MA). Katabi has spent her entire professional career at MIT.
Katabi works on methods to enhance the speed, reliability, and security of
digital communication, including
wireless data transmission. One application is for communication with
medical appliances, which need to transmit
unencrypted data to allow
emergency medical personnel access without
security codes.
David Lobell
Agricultural Ecologist, David Lobell (Age 34; Ph.D., Stanford University, 2005), is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Environmental Earth System Science of Stanford University (Stanford, CA). Lobell was a postdoctoral fellow at
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 2005-2007.
Lobell investigates how
climate change will impact worldwide
crop production and
food security. His
multidisciplinary approach uses such disciplines as
remote sensing,
statistics and
agronomy. Lobell's research has found that
maize is much more sensitive to heat extremes and
drought conditions than previously thought.
Susan Murphy
Statistician, Susan Murphy (Age 55; Ph.D., the
University of North Carolina, 1989), is a Professor of Statistics in the Department of Statistics of the
University of Michigan (
Ann Arbor, MI). Before joining the faculty of the University of Michigan, Murphy was at
Pennsylvania State University from 1989-1997.
Murphy uses statistics to develop treatment plans for people with
chronic or
relapsing disorders such as
depression or
substance abuse. In such cases, the best
therapeutic approach is based on the patient's current state, the stage of the
disease, and the patient's response to prior treatments.
Sheila Nirenberg
Neuroscientist, Sheila Nirenberg (Age Not Listed; Ph.D., Harvard University, 1993), is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the
Weill Cornell Medical College (
New York, NY).
Nirenberg's research centers on whether there might be an alternative approach to restoring sight after
photoreceptor cell degeneration. Nirenberg invented a
computerized eyeglass prosthetic that transmits visual information to
ganglion cells, instead.
Ana Maria Rey
Atomic Physicist, Ana Maria Rey (Age 36; Ph.D., the
University of Maryland, 2004), is a Fellow of
JILA, previously known as the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, of the
University of Colorado (
Boulder, CO). Rey was a postdoctoral researcher at the
National Institute of Standards and Technology from 2004-2005, and a postdoctoral fellow at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics from 2005-2008 before joining JILA.
Rey works on
optical-lattice systems, which have application to
quantum simulation and
quantum information storage; and she is working on the problem of stabilizing large-scale
quantum entanglement between atoms, which would improve
quantum computation.
Sara Seager
Astrophysicist, Sara Seager (Age 42; Ph.D., Harvard University, 1999), is a Professor of
Planetary Science and Professor of
Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA). Seager was at the
Institute for Advanced Study from 1999-2002 and the
Carnegie Institution of Washington from 2002-2006 before joining the MIT faculty.
Seager is exploring the
possible existence of life on other planets. She's following up on her earlier work that showed that it's possible to observe an
extrasolar planet's atmosphere, which leads to the possibility of remotely detecting
biosignature gases.
References:
- 2013 MacArthur Fellows, MacArthur Foundation Web Site.
- The MacArthur Fellows Program, MacArthur Foundation Web Site.
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