Gmachl wins 'genius' grant

Just ten years after earning her doctorate, electrical engineering professor Claire Gmachl can already claim 125 published articles and 15 granted patents to her name. Now she can add another title to her list: certified "genius."

Gmachl is among the 25 winners of the 2005 MacArthur Fellowship, a five-year, $500,000 grant to scholars, artists and other individuals who demonstrate exceptional "originality, insight and potential." Commonly known as the "genius grant," the unrestricted fellowship was awarded at midnight last night by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Photographer Fazal Sheikh '87 also won this year for "using the personalizing power of portraiture to bring the faces of the world's displaced people into focus," according to the foundation.

Gmachl's research deals with the development and optimization of a new type of laser, which has applications ranging from optical communications to healthcare and homeland security. The lasers, called quantum cascade lasers, can emit light in different parts of the spectrum than ordinary lasers; they are also less complex and more reliable.

Possible future applications of the technology include monitoring smokestack emissions, screening for explosives and detecting the trace gases in people's breath that signify lung, kidney and liver disorders.

The grant will allow Gmachl to try "some far-out and higher-risk programs that are otherwise hard to find support for," she said. "It's an unexpected and heartwarming show of confidence."

Engineering school dean Maria Klawe said that Gmachl is an "absolutely totally amazing" researcher. "She has such a fabulous future ahead. I can't imagine anyone better for this award."

"I think she's the kind of person that could win a Nobel Prize," Klawe added. "It's very impressive watching her."

Texas A&M professor Alexey Belyanin collaborated with Gmachl on several recent projects. "I always knew that she's just wonderful and she's up to great achievements," he said. "She definitely fully deserved it. She is a pleasure to work with."

"I know these sound like banalities," Belyanin said. "But this time, it's true."

Gmachl — who came to Princeton in 2003 after eight years at Bell Laboratories — is the third University professor in four years to win the MacArthur fellowship. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineer Naomi Leonard '85 won last year for her work on underwater gliders that survey the ocean. Her research has applications for weather prediction and the military.

In 2002, molecular biology professor Bonnie Bassler won for her research on bacterial communication.

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All three recent University winners have been women, Klawe noted. "We've been proactive in going out and recruiting really phenomenal women and I think that's paying off," she said.

President Tilghman has made recruiting top female scientists one of her priorities, and she appointed a task force in 2003 to look into ways to draw more women to the University.

Sheikh could not be reached for comment last night.

— Includes reporting by Princetonian Staff Writer Viola Huang.