Israeli Computer Scientist Regina Barzilay Scoops MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant
Image by YouTube
(JTA) — An Israeli computer scientist is among the winners of this year’s MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants.
Regina Barzilay, 46, is a computational linguist based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose work includes training machines to understand different languages. Her research helped decipher part of the semitic Ugaritic language by mapping it onto Hebrew, a linguistic relative.
The winners of the award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation each receive a $625,000 grant in recognition of “extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits.” Past Jewish recipients include “The Wire” creator David Simon, novelist Ben Lerner and visual artist Nicole Eisenman.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
