Two Professors Receive Guggenheim Fellowships

Frank Magilligan and Mukul Sharma are among 175 scholars to receive the award this year.

Frank Magilligan, a professor of geography and the Frank J. Reagan '09 Chair of Policy Studies, and Mukul Sharma, a professor of earth sciences, have been awarded fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In winning the Guggenheim award, they join 175 American and Canadian scientists, scholars in the social sciences and humanities, and writers and artists selected from almost 3,000 applicants.

"I am truly delighted that the Guggenheim Foundation has recognized these two brilliant Dartmouth scientists for their achievements as well as the promise of their current research projects, which, in their ambition and scope, reach far beyond the academy and hold the potential to change the world in exciting and vital ways," says President Phil Hanlon '77, a member of the foundation's educational board and 1992 Guggenheim Fellow.

Appointed on the basis of "prior achievement and exceptional promise," the successful candidates were selected through a rigorous peer-review process, says the foundation, which aims to promote the development of scholars and artists by helping them engage in research and creation "under the freest possible conditions."

Previous fellows include Nobel laureates, Fields Medalists, poets laureate, members of the various national academies, and winners of other important, internationally recognized honors, including the Pulitzer Prize, Turing Award, and National Book Award.

Edward Hirsch, the foundation's president, says it is "exceptionally encouraging to be able to share such positive news at this terribly challenging time."

"A Guggenheim Fellowship has always offered practical assistance, helping Fellows do their work, but for many of the new Fellows, it may be a lifeline at a time of hardship, a survival tool as well as a creative one," Hirsch says. "As we grapple with the difficulties of the moment, it is also important to look to the future. The artists, writers, scholars, and scientific researchers supported by the Fellowship will help us understand and learn from what we are enduring individually and collectively, and it is an honor for the Foundation to help them do their essential work."

See the Dartmouth News profiles of Magilligan and Sharma on April 13.

Aimee Minbiole can be reached at aimee.minbiole@dartmouth.edu.