Former University of Waterloo PhD student Erik Demaine was given the 2003 MacArthur Fellows Program award (called a "genius award") last week for his work in computational geometry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is an assistant professor. Demaine, who is only 22, was one of 24 individual from a variety of fields to win the "no strings attached" $500,000.
According to their website, the MacArthur Fellows
Program "awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction." The individual must show "exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work."
The unusual thing about this award, besides the sheer quantity of monies awarded, is that one does not have to be affiliated with an institution to be eligible for it, and there are no restrictions on how the money must be used. It is awarded as an "investment in a person's originality, insight, and potential," rather than for their past achievements.
In an email to uwstudent.org, Erik’s former PhD advisor Ian Munro (Computer Science Professor and Canada Research Chair in Algorithm Design) described Demaine as a "solid hard worker in addition to having the ability, [with a] drive to do well, but none of the 'negative aspects', certainly not 'driven'… intellectually extraordinary." Munro is "delighted that [Demaine] has won this award, primarily because I truly believe he deserves it ... and he is also a personal as well as professional friend."
The MacArthur Fellows Program asked Munro to write a letter of reference for Demaine. In it, he stated that "Dr. Demaine is an established international leader in Computer Science and Discrete Mathematics." He listed the numerous, important and prestigious academic accomplishments which Demaine has already achieved, calling his research record “truly amazing” and remarking on "the depth and impact of his research contributions." Demaine, according to Munro, "is extremely inventive and has the ability to learn new areas of Mathematics or Computer Science quickly and then apply the techniques of these areas to his other (ever expanding) research interests."
Demaine, who was only 14 when he started his Master’s of Math at UW, does indeed have a broad range of interests. Besides computational geometry, Demaine has also studied discrete algorithms, knot theory, algebraic geometry, rigidity theory, differential equations, origami, concurrency control, programming languages, scientific computation, data structures, graph theory, principles of distributed computation, computational game theory and cache oblivious B-trees. He also likes juggling, card magic, string structures, improv comedy/theatre, and writing.
In an interview with the Communitech Technology Association, Demaine said that he thinks he might spend some of the money on an art project involving algorithms – just another example of the playful, innovative and original spirit that won him this award.
• UW grad wins "Genius" award, $500,000 US Imprint 10 Oct 2003
• 'Genius' fellowship for young PhD DB 7 Oct 2003
• Erik Demaine's webpage
• MacArthur Foundation
http://old.uwstudent.org/article.php?story=20031020105650333