Yale affiliates named 2014 Guggenheim Fellows

Two Yale faculty members — Jun Korenaga and Steven Pincus — and 10 alumni have been named 2014 Guggenheim Fellows  “on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.”

The university affiliates were among 178 scholars, artists, and scientists selected from nearly 3,000 candidates from the United States and Canada to receive the fellowship, according to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, which announced the results of its 90th annual competition earlier this month.

Yale faculty members

Jun Korenaga, professor of geology and geophysics: A self-labeled “freestyle geophysicist,” Korenaga studies Earth’s evolution using an array of theoretical and observational methods — is a professor of geology and geophysics and labels himself a “freestyle geophysicist.” He is known particularly for his hypothesis of slower plate tectonics on the young Earth, which challenges a prevailing belief in earth sciences. Korenaga has recently developed a new method of identifying what has long been invisible inside the Earth. As a Guggenheim Fellow he will explore the possibility of optimizing the new detection method and its application to the seismic imaging of Earth’s deep interior.

Steven Pincus, the Bradford Durfee Professor of History and co-director of the Center for Historical Enquiry and the Social Sciences: Pincus specializes in early modern British, European, and Atlantic history. He has published widely on issues as diverse as the rise of the coffeehouse, the foreign policy of the Cromwellian protectorate, the nature of mercantilism, and the drama of Thomas Shadwell. His most recent book, “1688: The First Modern Revolution,” won the Morris Forkosch prize from the American Historical Association. The Yale historian will spend his Guggenheim Fellowship term researching and writing a book-length project investigating the origins of the British Empire from c. 1650 to 1784.

Yale alumni and their projects

Donald Crafton ’77 Ph.D., the Joseph and Elizabeth Robbie Professor of Film, Television, and Theatre, University of Notre Dame: “Disney and California Vernacular Modernism.”

Ray Jayawardhana ’94 B.A., professor of astronomy and astrophysics and Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics, University of Toronto: “Our Cosmic Selves.”

Meira Levinson ’92 B.A., associate professor of education, Harvard University: “Dilemmas of Educational Justice.”

Eric Nathan ’06 B.A., composer, Larchmont, New York: Music composition.

Meghan O’Rourke ’97 B.A., writer, Brooklyn, New York, and associate professor of creative writing, New York University: “What’s Wrong with Me: The Uncertainties of Chronic Illness.”

Matthew Pillsbury ’95 B.A., photographer, New York, New York: Photography.

Peter Rock ’91, B.A., writer, Portland, Oregon, and professor of creative writing, Reed College: Fiction.

Lainie Ross ’98 Ph.D., the Carolyn and Matthew Bucksbaum Professor of Clinical Ethics, professor in the Departments of Pediatrics, Medicine and Surgery, and associate director, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, University of Chicago: “From Peapods to Whole Genomes: Incidental Findings and Unintended Consequences in a Post-Mendelian World.”

Haun Saussy ’90 Ph.D., University Professor of Comparative Literature and East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago: “Translation as Citation, or Zhuangzi Inside Out”

Helmut Smith ’92 Ph.D., the Martha Rivers Ingram Professor of History, Vanderbilt University: “The German Nation Before, During, and After Nationalism, 1500-2000.”

Joseph Thornton ’87 B.A., professor of human genetics and ecology and evolution, University of Chicago: “The Functional Synthesis in Molecular Biology and Evolution.”