GCRI is delighted to announce the formation of a new Fellowship Program and the members of the inaugural 2021 GCRI Fellowship class. The Fellowship Program recognizes a select group of 12 individuals who have made exceptional contributions to addressing global catastrophic risk in collaboration with GCRI during the year 2021.
The 2021 GCRI Fellows range from undergraduates to senior professionals and hail from seven countries around the world. Their contributions include research across a diverse range of disciplines, policy outreach, program development, and more. We at GCRI can attest to the excellent quality of the Fellows’ contributions. We are confident that they will continue to do excellent work on global catastrophic risk during 2022 and beyond, whether via continued collaboration with GCRI or via other activities.
The 2021 GCRI Fellows Program is a recognition of the excellent contributions of select GCRI collaborators. Fellows were selected based on the extent of their collaborations during 2021 and the quality of their work. We at GCRI decided to create the Fellowship Program because we were impressed by the people collaborating with us this year and wanted to formally recognize them. Because we developed the idea for the Fellowship Program late in the year, we did not announce the Program or issue a call for participants at the beginning of the year. We anticipate making an announcement, call for participants, or similar statement at the beginning of future years.
The new Fellowship Program is part of GCRI’s commitment to supporting the development of the field of global catastrophic risk. Another major GCRI field-building activity is our Advising and Collaboration Program, which features an open invitation for people to reach out to GCRI to get more involved. Indeed, the 2021 Fellows mostly connected with GCRI initially via our 2021 Advising and Collaboration Program. We at GCRI have been privileged to interact with many very talented students, researchers, and professionals.
Congratulations to our 2021 GCRI Fellows.
Uliana Certan
London
Uliana Certan is an independent researcher currently taking time off before graduate school. She holds a B.A. from Brandeis University with a triple major in international relations, political science, and economics. She is collaborating with GCRI on a research project on military artificial intelligence and related international security topics.
John Fogle
Colorado Springs
John Fogle is a retired US Air Force intelligence officer with a background in cyberspace policy and crisis response planning. He also previously served as a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. He holds an M.A. in strategic intelligence studies from the American Military University and a B.A. in political science from the University of Kentucky. He is collaborating with GCRI on policy outreach, especially related to US military affairs, and on research on international security.
Joseph Gottlieb
Lubbock, TX
Joseph Gottlieb is a Research Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Texas Tech University. His prior work addresses topics including space colonization and philosophy of mind. He is collaborating with GCRI on a research project on misinformation about global catastrophic risk.
Manon Gouiran
Geneva
Manon Gouiran is a research intern at the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences. She previously was a Summer Research Fellow of the Swiss Existential Risk Initiative. She holds B.S and M.S. degrees in Psychology from the University of Geneva. She is collaborating with GCRI on a research project on moral circle expansion as a means of addressing global catastrophic risk and improving the long-term future.
Jessica Hodgson
Melbourne
Jessica Hodgson is a student pursuing a B.A. degree in Philosophy and Politics & International Studies from the University of Melbourne. She is collaborating with GCRI on a research project on handling extreme uncertainty, with emphasis on the philosophy of cluelessness.
Matthijs Maas
Cambridge, UK
Matthijs Maas is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. He holds a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Copenhagen, an M.S. in International Relations from the University of Edinburgh, and a B.A. in Arts from the University of Utrecht. He is collaborating with GCRI on a research project on the implications of artificial intelligence for international security.
Aaron Martin
New Brunswick, NJ
Aaron Martin is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at Rutgers University. He holds an M.A. in Sociology from Rutgers University and a B.A. in English and Education from Houghton College. He is collaborating with GCRI on a research project on policy attention to global catastrophic risk with emphasis on the case of near-Earth objects.
Dakota Norris
Saskatoon
Dakota Norris is a member of the Gwich’in First Nation and a Masters student in Environment and Sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan, where he also received a B.Comm in Management. He has worked for several years as a researcher and manager in various roles focused on climate change, Indigenous development and policy. He is collaborating with GCRI on a research project on moral circle expansion as a means of addressing global catastrophic risk and improving the long-term future.
Matthew Rendall
Nottingham
Matthew Rendall is Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham. His work addresses large-scale war and peace, climate change, intergenerational ethics, and related topics. He is collaborating with GCRI on nuclear war risk research and has helped advise participants in GCRI’s Advising and Collaboration Program.
Jonas Schuett
Frankfurt
Jonas Schuett is a Research Fellow at the Legal Priorities Project, a Ph.D. candidate in Law at the Goethe University Frankfurt, and a Research Affiliate at the Centre for the Governance of AI. He previously worked as a Policy Research and Intelligence Intern at DeepMind and as a Consultant at KPMG Law. He is collaborating with GCRI on corporate governance of AI.
Rumtin Sepasspour
Canberra
Rumtin Sepasspour is an independent researcher and a Research Affiliate of the University of Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. He previously worked as a Policy Officer in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet of Australia and Intelligence Analyst with the Department of Defence. He is collaborating with GCRI on research projects on relations between China and the West and on the merits of policy outreach on the general topic of global catastrophic risk.
Allan Suresh
Thiruvananthapuram
Allan Suresh is a student pursuing a B.Tech. Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka. He is collaborating with GCRI on research projects on artificial intelligence safety and ethics.
