UCLA scholars named Guggenheim Fellows

Four UCLA faculty members are among an esteemed group of 175 of scholars, artists and scientists from the United States and Canada to receive 2013 Guggenheim Fellowships. The new fellows were chosen from a pool of nearly 3,000 applicants. The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowships, now in their 89th year, recognize "prior achievement and exceptional promise" and provide grants to support each fellow's work. The foundation has distributed over $306 million in fellowships to more than 17,500 individuals since its establishment in 1925. Merkurjev, a professor of mathematics, will focus on the complexity of homogeneous spaces in algebra. His research is expected to contribute to the study of fundamental problems in the area of algebraic geometry, including the rationality problem of classifying varieties of algebraic groups. Scott is a professor of art history and founding director (2003-11) of the UCLA/Getty Program in Archaeological and Ethnographic Conservation.