2022 MacArthur Fellows (Genius Grant) 25

 June E. Huh, Monica Kim, Yejin Choi

 

2022 맥아더 펠로우(MacArthur Fellows)에 허준이 프린스턴대 수학과/ 한국 고등과학원 석학교수, 모니카 김 위스콘신-매디슨대 역사학과 교수, 최예진 워싱턴대 컴퓨터공학과 교수 등 25명이 선정됐다. 그랜트는 80만 달러. 

 

허준이(June E. Huh) 교수는 "수학의 이질적인 영역간의 근본적인 연결을 발견하고, 오랜 수학적 추측을 증명한 공로"로 선정됐다. 서울대에서 수학과 물리학을 복수 전공한 후 일리노이대 어바나-샴페인대를 거쳐 미시간대에서 박사학위를 받은 허 교수는 올해 '수학계의 노벨상' 필즈상을 수상했다. 

 

모니카 김(Monica Kim) 교수는 세계 지역환경에서 미국의 외교정책, 군사 개입, 탁식민지화 과정 및 개인의 권리 사이의 상호 작용을 연구해왔다. 예일대 역사학과 졸업 후 미시간대학교에서 박사학위를 받은 김 교수는 2019년 '한국전쟁의 심문실 (The Interrogation Rooms of the Korean War: The Untold History, Princeton University Press)'의 저자이기도 하다. 

 

최예진(Yejin Choi)교수는 자연어 처리과정을 사용, 언어를 이해하고 세상에 대해 추론할 수 있는 인공지능(AI) 시스템을 개발한 공로가 인정됐다. 서울대 컴퓨터 공학과 졸업 후 코넬대에서 석사와 박사학위를 받은 최 교수는 스토니브룩대 교수 시절 호텔 가짜 리뷰를 구별하는 통계기술을 개발하기도 했다. 

 

 

2022 MacArthur Fellows (Genius Grant) 25

 

 

'천재 그랜트(Genius Grant)'로 알려진 맥아더 펠로쉽 프로그램은 1981년부터 존 D. 와 캐서린 T. 맥아더 재단이 "청의적인 추구에서 탁월한 독창성과 헌신을 보여주며, 자기 주도에 대해 현저한 능력을 보여준 미국 시민이나 거주자를 대상으로 매년 20-30명씩 선정한다. 2022년 상금은 5년에 걸쳐 분기별로 총 80만 달러 사용에 조건이 없는 '꿈의 그랜트'다. 이 프로그램은 신청을 받지 않으며, 재단이 익명의 기밀 후보자를 초대하고, 약 12명의 기밀 선발위원회의 검토를 거쳐서 선정한다. 분야도 학자, 영화감독, 아티스트, 뮤지션, 소셜워커 등 다양하며, 수상자는 18세부터 82세까지 폭이 넓다. 한인으로는 2003년 김용 전 세계은행 총재, 지난해엔 최돈미 시인/번역가가 받았다. https://www.macfound.org

 

 

Meet the 2022 MacArthur Fellows 

 

#Jennifer Carlson/Sociologist: Uncovering the motivations, assumptions, and social forces that drive gun ownership and shape gun culture in the United States. Tucson, AZ 

#Paul Chan/ Artist: Testing the capacity of art to make human experience available for critical reflection and to effect social change. New York, NY 

#Yejin Choi/ Computer Scientist: Using natural language processing to develop artificial intelligence systems that can understand language and make inferences about the world. Seattle, WA 

#P. Gabrielle Foreman/ Literary Historian and Digital Humanist: Catalyzing inquiry into historic nineteenth-century collective Black organizing efforts through initiatives such as the Colored Conventions Project. University Park, PA 

#Danna Freedman/ Synthetic Inorganic Chemist: Creating novel molecular materials with unique properties directly relevant to quantum information technologies. Cambridge, MA

#Martha Gonzalez/ Musician, Scholar, and Artist/Activist: Strengthening cross-border ties and advancing participatory methods of artistic knowledge production in the service of social justice. Claremont, CA

#Sky Hopinka/ Artist and Filmmaker: Combining imagery and language in films and videos that offer new strategies of representation for the expression of Indigenous worldviews. Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

#June Huh/ Mathematician:Discovering underlying connections between disparate areas of mathematics and proving long-standing mathematical conjectures. Princeton, NJ

#Moriba Jah/ Astrodynamicist: Envisioning transparent and collaborative solutions for creating a circular space economy that improves oversight of Earth’s orbital spheres. Austin, TX

#Jenna Jambeck/ Environmental Engineer: Investigating the scale and pathways of plastic pollution and galvanizing efforts to address plastic waste. Athens, GA

#Monica Kim/ Historian: Examining the interplay between U.S. foreign policy, military intervention, processes of decolonization, and individual rights in regional settings around the globe. Madison, WI

#Robin Wall Kimmerer/ Plant Ecologist, Educator, and Writer: Articulating an alternative vision of environmental stewardship informed by traditional ecological knowledge. Syracuse, NY

#Priti Krishtel/ Health Justice Lawyer: Exposing the inequities in the patent system to increase access to affordable, life-saving medications on a global scale. Oakland, CA

#Joseph Drew Lanham/ Ornithologist, Naturalist, and Writer: Creating a new model of conservation that combines conservation science with personal, historical, and cultural narratives of nature. Clemson, SC

#Kiese Laymon/ Writer: Bearing witness to the myriad forms of violence that mark the Black experience in formally inventive fiction and nonfiction. Houston, TX

#Reuben Jonathan Miller/ Sociologist, Criminologist, and Social Worker: Tracing the long-term consequences that incarceration and re-entry systems have on the lives of individuals and their families. Chicago, IL

#Ikue Mori/ Electronic Music Composer and Performer: Transforming the use of percussion in improvisation and expanding the boundaries of machine-based music. New York, NY

#Steven Prohira/ Physicist: Challenging conventional theories and engineering new tools to detect ultra-high energy sub-atomic particles that could hold clues to long-held mysteries of our universe. Lawrence, KS

#Tomeka Reid/ Jazz Cellist and Composer: Forging a unique jazz sound that draws from a range of musical traditions and expanding the expressive possibilities of the cello in improvised music. Chicago, IL

#Loretta J. Ross/ Reproductive Justice and Human Rights Advocate: Shaping a visionary paradigm linking social justice, human rights, and reproductive justice. Northampton, MA

#Steven Ruggles/ Historical Demographer: Setting new standards in quantitative historical research by building the world’s largest publicly available database of population statistics. Minneapolis, MN

#Tavares Strachan/ Interdisciplinary Conceptual Artist: Expanding the possibilities for what art can be and illuminating overlooked contributions of marginalized figures throughout history. New York, NY and Nassau, The Bahamas

#Emily Wang/ Primary Care Physician and Researcher: Partnering with people recently released from prison to address their needs and the ways that incarceration influences chronic health conditions. New Haven, CT

#Amanda Williams/ Artist and Architect: Reimagining public space to expose the complex ways that value, both cultural and economic, intersects with race in the built environment. Chicago, IL

#Melanie Matchett Wood/ Mathematician: Addressing foundational questions in number theory from the perspective of arithmetic statistics. Cambridge, MA

https://www.macfound.org/programs/fellows