Mahyar Named 2023–2024 Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow  

Narges Mahyar, an assistant professor of computer science in the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS) at UMass Amherst, has been named a Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow for 2023-24. The Radcliffe fellowship offers scholars in the humanities, sciences, social sciences, and arts--as well as writers, journalists, and other distinguished professionals--a rare chance to pursue ambitious projects for a full year in a vibrant interdisciplinary setting at Harvard.  

Mahyar's research falls at the intersection of visualization, human-computer interaction, social computing, and design with the goal of augmenting people's abilities to solve complex problems. At Radcliffe, Mahyar will integrate situated visualization, augmented reality, and public participation technology to raise awareness about climate change for underserved communities in Boston. Her goal is to build a platform that benefits the movement toward more equitable resilience by creating new opportunities for the public, especially the underserved communities, to raise their voices and join the discourse. 

"Professor Mahyar has produced an impressive body of work exploring new strategies for increasing public engagement in complex decision-making related to civic issues," says Donna J. and Robert M. Manning Dean of CICS Laura Haas. "Her work is a shining example of the excellent scholarship at UMass Amherst, particularly as it relates to the challenges around climate change. We celebrate Dr. Mayhar's receipt of the prestigious fellowship and look forward to seeing the outcome of her collaborations at Harvard." 

Mahyar's work has received numerous accolades, including best paper awards from the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (2023), Eurographics/IEEE VGTC Symposium on Visualization (2022), the ACM Conferences on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (2020), and the IEEE Conference on Visual Analytics Science and Technology (2014), as well as an Outstanding Paper Award from the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture in 2017. She holds a doctorate in computer science from the University of Victoria, a master's degree in information technology from the University of Malaya, and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Tehran Azad University. 

"This year's cohort promises, once again, to accomplish incredible things," says Tomiko Brown-Nagin, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School, and professor of history in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "As ever, we have outstanding fellows with expertise in a wide range of fields."  

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University--also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute--is one of the world's leading centers for interdisciplinary exploration. The program brings students, scholars, artists, and practitioners together to pursue curiosity-driven research, expand human understanding, and grapple with questions that demand insight from across disciplines. For more information, visit www.radcliffe.harvard.edu.