Professor To Receive ‘Genius Grant’

Professor of History Ann M. Blair ’84 received a MacArthur Fellowship yesterday for her research on the intellectual and cultural history of early modern Europe.

The so-called “genius grant” is a no-strings-attached award of $500,000 to be paid out over five years. Blair is one of 24 winners this year.

In its statement, the MacArthur Foundation praises Blair for researching “historical responses to challenges that, in many ways, resonate with contemporary times.”

The foundation nominates its own candidates and does not accept applications for the grant. As a result, winners are kept in the dark until they receive the award.

“I had no idea my name was even under consideration,” Blair said. “It was a complete surprise.”

Since she graduated from Harvard 18 years ago, Blair has focused her research on the intellectual history of early modern Europe. She authored her first book, The Theater of Nature: Jean Bodin and Renaissance Science, in 1997. The work documents the struggle to strike a balance between religious fanaticism and scientific secularism, Blair said.

Blair is currently writing a book about how new ideas developed in early modern Europe, chronicling how scholars indexed and sifted through what she describes as an excess of information.

University President Lawrence H. Summers praised Blair’s contributions to historical research.

“Ann Blair’s broad and deep knowledge of the history of science in Europe and of the scientific revolution reveals to us the deep roots of some of our own ‘modern’ dilemmas,” he said in a statement yesterday. “I am delighted that the MacArthur Foundation has recognized one of Harvard’s most engaging teachers and promising scholars with this award.”

Blair said she has no concrete plans yet for the award, which she called “a windfall.”

She said she might be interested in using the money to organize a conference or fund travel.

While some grant winners choose to pursue new fields of study with their money, Blair said she plans to stick with her current studies.

“I think my commitment to these areas of research is certainly not going anywhere,” she said. “I don’t see myself running off and becoming a physicist.”

After graduating from Harvard College, Blair went on to study first at Cambridge University and then at Princeton University.

She first came to Harvard in 1991 as a lecturer in the Department of the History of Science.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent grantmaking institution dedicated to helping groups and individuals foster lasting improvement in the human condition.

Other winners this year, ranging in age from 29 to 60, include a seismologist who works to prevent natural disasters in third-world countries, a glass bead artist, and an anthropologist who uses fossilized plants to understand ancient cultures.

Over the past three years, three other Harvard professors have been awarded fellowships: McKay Professor of Applied Physics and Professor of Physics Lene Hau, Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences Daniel P. Schrag, and Professor of Physics Juan M. Maldacena.