Date Posted: 5/03/2019

Jon M. Kleinberg, Tisch University Professor of Computer Science and Information Science, received The Vannevar Bush Award—the United States Department of Defense’s “flagship single investigator award for basic research.”

The Vannevar Bush Award “honors truly exceptional lifelong leaders in science and technology who have made substantial contributions to the welfare of the Nation through public service activities in science, technology, and public policy. The award was established in 1980 in the memory of Vannevar Bush, who served as a science advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II, helped to establish federal funding for science and engineering as a national priority during peacetime, and was behind the creation of the National Science Foundation.”

Professor Kleinberg joins ten distinguished faculty scientists and engineers for the 2019 Class of Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellows. “This fellowship program aims to advance transformative, university-based fundamental research.” 

“The Department of Defense (DoD) is the home of big ideas for unique problem sets,” said Dr. Bindu Nair, deputy director for Basic Research in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. “The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship reflects the department’s commitment to support paradigm-shifting research that explores the unknown, engages outstanding scientists and engineers on these challenges, and helps to define and transform our research agendas of the future.”

“The 2019 class will join a cadre of fifty-five current fellows, who conduct basic research in areas of importance to the DoD, ranging from materials science and cognitive neuroscience to quantum information sciences and applied mathematics. In addition to their research projects, fellows engage directly with the DoD enterprise to collaborate with DoD laboratories and share insights with DoD leadership and the broader national security community.”  

“For the fiscal year 2019 competition, the Basic Research Office received over two-hundred-fiftywhite papers, from which panels of experts selected the final tenfellows. Each fellow will receive up to threemillion dollars over the five-year fellowship term to pursue cutting-edge fundamental research projects.”

  • Source of the announcement here.
  • More information about the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship is available on the Basic Research Office website.
  • Read a follow-up article in the Chronicle Chronicle.