MacArthur Genius Awards for 2006

Lance Fortnow has a post on the latest batch of "genius awards" by the Mac Arthur foundation. Awards in disciplines of potential interest to the readers of this blog are to

• Luis von Ahn.
  
• Terence Tao.
• Claire Tomlin. The announcement makes very interesting reading for a concurrency theorist, and for anyone interested in formal verification:
  

  Much of Tomlin's research concentrates on aeronautical applications of hybrid systems research, particularly aircraft flight control and air traffic conflict resolution. As the number of variables increases and their interactions become more complex, it becomes ever more difficult to guarantee that systems will always be within safe limits. Tomlin has developed practical algorithms for determining when unsafe conditions may arise, and for establishing feedback control laws for a hybrid system guaranteed to remain within a safe subset of all reachable states.
  

In keeping with my previous jazz-related post, I am glad to see that John Zorn, one of my favourite musicians and prime mover behind Tzadik Records, is one of the recipients of the award. Check out his Masada series if you have not done so already.

Congratulations to the winners of the awards!