Professor Mohammad Taghi Hajiaghayi named as a Guggenheim Fellow

Professor Mohammad Taghi Hajiaghayi has been named as one of 168 John Simon Guggenheim Fellows for 2019 for Applied Mathematics.  He is one of thirteen scientists to receive this award and is the first Computer Scientist at the University of Maryland honored in this way. He was named among artists, musicians, filmmakers, art critics, literature scholars and writers. Hajiaghayi will be using his fellowship to continue his work on big graph algorithms and algorithmic game theory.

When he received the call about the fellowship, he immediately shared the news with his wife Dr. Arefeh Nasr as well as his Ph.D. advisor Professor Erik D. Demaine among other friends and family. Hajiaghayi will receive his award officially in New York City on May 6th.  “It is exciting to be chosen among so many artists, scientists, and critics and learn about their work,” he said.

Hajiaghayi was also recently named an ACM Fellow.

Read the Press Release from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation:

On April 9, 2019, the Board of Trustees of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation approved the awarding of Guggenheim Fellowships to a diverse group of 168 scholars, artists, and writers. Appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise, the successful candidates were chosen from a group of almost 3,000 applicants in the Foundation’s ninety-fifth competition.

The great variety of backgrounds, fields of study, and accomplishments of Guggenheim Fellows is one of the unique characteristics of the Fellowship program. In all, forty-nine scholarly disciplines and artistic fields, seventy-five different academic institutions, twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia, and two Canadian provinces are represented in this year’s class of Fellows, who range in age from twenty-nine to eighty-five. Forty-nine Fellows have no academic affiliation or hold adjunct or part-time positions.

Edward Hirsch, president of the Foundation, is enthusiastic about the Fellows in the class of 2019: “It’s exceptionally satisfying to name 168 new Guggenheim Fellows. These artists and writers, scholars and scientists, represent the best of the best. Each year since 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation has bet everything on the individual, and we’re thrilled to continue to do so with this wonderfully talented and diverse group. It’s an honor to be able to support these individuals to do the work they were meant to do.”

Since its establishment in 1925, the Foundation has granted more than $360 million in Fellowships to over 18,000 individuals, among whom are scores of Nobel laureates, Fields Medalists, poets laureate, members of the various national academies, and winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Turing Award, National Book Award, and other significant, internationally recognized honors.

The Guggenheim Fellowship program remains a significant source of support for artists, writers, and scholars in the humanities and social sciences, and scientific researchers. New and continuing donations from friends, Trustees, former Fellows, and other foundations have ensured that the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation will be able to continue to carry out its historic mission.
For more information on the Fellows and their projects, please visit the Foundation’s website at http://www.gf.org.