Two Johns Hopkins faculty members have been awarded 2024 Guggenheim Fellowships: Jenann Ismael, a professor in the Department of Philosophy, and Marc Kamionkowski, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The prestigious award recognizes scholars, scientists, and artists for significant achievement in their respective fields.
Jenann Ismael's fellowship is in the category of philosophy. Her research focuses on the philosophy of physics and metaphysics, especially areas involving the structure of space and time, quantum mechanics, and the foundations of physical laws. She has published four books: Time: A Very Short Introduction (2021, Oxford University Press), How Physics Makes Us Free (2016, Oxford University Press), The Situated Self (2007, Oxford University Press), and Essays on Symmetry (2001, Garland Press).
Marc Kamionkowski's fellowship is in the category of astronomy–astrophysics. He is a theoretical physicist who specializes in cosmology and particle physics. Much of his work has been on the hypothesis that some new elementary particle may constitute the cosmological dark matter, with his main focus being particle dark matter, inflation, and the cosmic microwave background, and cosmic acceleration.
Guggenheim Fellows receive financial awards and were selected from a pool of nearly 3,000 applicants. The Guggenheim Foundation was established in 1925 by U.S. Senator Simon Guggenheim and his wife Olga Guggenheim in memory of their son John. Since their creation, the foundation has provided nearly $400 million in fellowships.
Recent Guggenheim Fellows from Johns Hopkins include medical historian Jeremy Greene (2023), historian Todd Shepard (2021), engineer Erica Schoenberger (2020), writer and historian Lawrence Jackson (2019), filmmaker Matthew Porterfield (2019), and Peabody composer Oscar Bettison (2017).
