Chosen from a pool of nearly 3,000 applicants, Northwestern faculty made up six of 188 Guggenheim Fellows in 2024, the University announced Tuesday.
Joining the competitive group of fellows named by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation are art, theory and practice Prof. Mike Cloud, neurobiology Prof. Nina Kraus, chemistry Prof. Chad Mirkin, chemistry Prof. Teri Odom, art history Prof. Krista Thompson and McCormick Prof. Petia Vlahovska.
Through a rigorous process, applicants demonstrated impressive career achievement and future promise, according to the University press release.
Fellows across 52 disciplines will receive a financial stipend to pursue their work at the highest level possible.
Mike Cloud
Cloud is an associate professor of art, theory and practice, as well as a practiced painter. In his work, Cloud focuses on both painting and image-making, exploring form, text and re-aligning content to produce new understandings. Cloud plans to use his award to work on “Holistic Abstraction,” a research, writing and painting endeavor.
Nina Kraus
Kraus is a neurobiology and otolaryngology professor, the Hugh Knowles Chair of communication sciences and disorders and the director of the “Brainvolts” lab. Kraus’ research focuses on the biology of auditory learning, seeking to show how our lives in sound impact our neurological health, affecting our brain and interactions with others. With the Guggenheim fellowship, Kraus plans to write a novel exploring what music can teach us about our biology.
Chad Mirkin
Mirkin is a chemist and nanoscience expert. He is the director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology and the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry. Mirkin has authored 870 manuscripts and 1,200 patent applications, founded multiple companies and served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology for eight years. With the award, Mirkin plans on conducting research to transform cancer vaccines with nanotechnology.
Teri Odom
Odom is the Joan Husting Madden and William H. Madden Jr. Professor of Chemistry and the chair of the department of chemistry. He is also a member of the International Institute for Nanotechnology and Chemistry of Life Processes Institute. She designs structured nanoscale materials and hopes to use her fellowship to create structured color materials, which can be used for nanoscale coatings on cooling surfaces.
Krista Thompson
Thompson is an art historian, curator and the Mary Jane Crowe Professor in Art History. Thompson researches the art of the African diaspora and Caribbean, especially photographic art. She has written several novels and plans to write another with her stipend, featuring 1960s African American artist Tom Lloyd.
Petia Vlahovska
Vlahovska is a professor and director of the Complex Fluids and Soft Interfaces Lab and is renowned for being the first in her field to examine the dynamics of “microrotors,” dense suspensions of self-propelled, tiny rotating spheres. Vlahovska plans to use her stipend to work toward harnessing active fluids for engineering micro-robotic systems.
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