Professor Niloofar Haeri, chair of the Anthropology Department, and Professor Lawrence M. Principe, a professor in the History of Science and Technology Department and the Chemistry Department, were chosen as recipients of 2015 fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
The foundation chose Principe, who is a Drew Professor of the Humanities and the director of the Singleton Center for the Study of Premodern Europe, Haeri and 173 other recipients from a pool of almost 3,000 scholars, artists and scientists who applied for the fellowships.
The fellowships were first given out in 1925 by U.S. Senator Simon Guggenheim and his wife in honor of his 17-year-old son John Simon Guggenheim, who died in 1922.
According to the foundation’s website Guggenheim defined the purpose of the fellowships in his first Letter of Gift given to a 1925 recipient of the fellowship.
“[The purpose is to] add to the educational, literary, artistic, and scientific power of this country, and also to provide for the cause of better international understanding,” reads an excerpt from the letter.
The fellowships last between six and twelve months and are designed to allow recipients to devote time to creative projects. The amount of funds given to recipients varies, and the foundation does not assure that it will fully fund any project.
Haeri plans to work on her book In the Presence of the Divine: Prayer and Poetry in the Lives of Iranian Women. Principe will be working on a book about advancements in chemistry at the French Academy of Sciences starting in 18th century.
The foundation awards fellowships in an American and Canadian competition and a separate Latin American and Caribbean competition. The competitions are open to citizens and permanent residents of the eligible countries.
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