The recipients are economics professor Markus Brunnermeier, mathematics professor Ingrid Daubechies, economics professor Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg, Near Eastern studies professor Bernard Haykel, visual arts professor Daniel Heyman, classics professor Joshua Katz, physics professor Igor Klebanov GS ’86, politics professor Philip Pettit and psychology professor Alexander Todorov. Katz is also a columnist for The Daily Princetonian.
The fellows will receive grants to support their research projects.
“When I first heard that I was selected, I felt really happy and honored!” Klebanov, who is also associate director of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Sciences, said in an e-mail.
Klebanov said he was “even more honored and excited” to find that he was the only recipient in the physics field.
“Obviously, this is a highly competitive award; it will encourage me to work even harder than usual during my fellowship year,” Klebanov added.
He plans to spend time at the Institute for Advanced Study and at institutions in California and Europe during the 2011–12 academic year.
“Receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship is a great honor, and I am grateful beyond measure to all my colleagues at Princeton and elsewhere who helped make it happen,” Katz said in an e-mail. “Princeton’s Department of Classics has won Guggenheims in back-to-back years … which is pretty remarkable.” Denis Feeney, who was the classics department chair at the time, was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship last year.
Katz plans to spend the 2010–11 academic year learning and writing about wordplay “from as wide a geographical and temporal perspective as possible” and will be a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College at Oxford University in the fall.
Katz also acknowledged the inspiration he received from the 15 students he taught in a freshman seminar last fall, FRS 115: Wordplay: A Wry Plod from Babel to Scrabble.
Heyman said that he was “doubly grateful” to have been named a fellow.
“In the arts, there is far more talent than funding — especially now, with so much of the art market simply collapsing,” he said.
Heyman will spend the year working in and around his Philadelphia studio, continuing to create work about the same social concerns that have motivated him in recent years.
Haykel is the director of the Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.
“I plan to use [the grant to] conduct research and to write a book on the history and politics of Saudi Arabia,” he said in an e-mail. Haykel’s work will primarily take place at the University, though he will also conduct archival research in England and travel to the Middle East.
Brunnermeier said in an e-mail that he was happy to receive the fellowship.
“Not only is it an honor to join the ranks of other distinguished fellows, it also enables me to focus on my recent efforts to build bridges between financial economics and macroeconomics,” he said.
Brunnermeier is taking a sabbatical next year, like many of the other fellows, and plans to conduct research at Yale, the University of Chicago and other institutions, though he will remain based at Princeton.
“I plan to focus on my research emphasizing the importance of financial frictions and price distortions in macroeconomic models,” Brunnermeier explained. “I believe that the current financial crisis will lead to a fundamental rethinking of conventional macroeconomic models and this new line of economic research will shape future teaching.”
Goldberg said she “naturally felt happy and honored to be part of such an accomplished group” and plans to continue her research on the effects of trade reforms on developing countries’ growth and productivity.
Pettit, who is the director of the Program in Political Philosophy, plans to continue work on “rethinking democracy in the light of civic republican ideals,” he said.
Todorov and Daubechies could not be reached for comment. They will conduct research projects called “The Influence of First Impressions on Decisions” and “Mathematical Modeling for the Madagascar Rain Forest,” respectively.
The Guggenheim Foundation has awarded more than $281 million in fellowships to more than 16,900 recipients since it was established in 1925.
Read More
David Zielenziger ’74, former ‘Prince’ chairman and lifelong journalist, passes away at 72
Kian PetlinFriends and colleagues remember former ‘Prince’ chairman David Zielenziger ’74, who passed away peacefully on May 20.
Friends and colleagues remember former ‘Prince’ chairman David Zielenziger ’74 who passed away peacefully on May 20.
Remembering Dorothea von Moltke, Labyrinth co-founder and local community builder
Lucia BrownDorothea von Moltke, widely considered the heart of Labyrinth Books, was remembered by friends and loved ones for her passions for language, literature, and local activism.
Dorothea von Moltke, widely considered the heart of Labyrinth Books, was remembered by friends and loved ones for her passions for language, literature, and local activism.
Cloister Inn to pause operations for the next 2–3 years, citing “hefty renovations”
Justus WilhoitCloister Inn, one of Princeton’s eating clubs, will pause operations for the next two to three years, due to “hefty renovations” to the club’s house.
Cloister Inn, one of Princeton’s eating clubs, will pause operations for the next two to three years, due to “hefty renovations” to the club’s house.