Dyer, Former CLIP Lab Member Advised by Resnik, Receives PECASE Award

President Barack Obama has named Chris Dyer, a former member of the Computational Linguistics and Information Processing (CLIP) Lab advised by Philip Resnik, a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

The award is the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Dyer, who received his doctoral degree in linguistics in 2010, is an assistant professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, but is currently working at DeepMind in London. He says he is thrilled to win the award.

“This is incredibly exciting news—the sort of thing that you could never possibly predict,” Dyer says. “It was a particular surprise since I’m on a leave of absence from CMU. But, I still have a lab full of students at CMU who I advise and support, so this is a big relief for them—and me—as this enables us to stay focused on the work we want to be doing.”

Resnik, a professor of linguistics with an appointment in UMIACS, says Dyer is extremely deserving of this honor.

“I'm incredibly pleased to see Chris recognized in this way, and also not the least bit surprised,” he says. “As a linguistics Ph.D. student in the CLIP Lab, Chris was a great example of an interdisciplinary researcher, and he's really been making his mark at the intersection of machine learning, natural language processing and linguistics in both academia and industry.”

Dyer is one of 102 researchers and scientists to receive the award. The PECASE, established by President William Jefferson Clinton in 1996, are coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President. The awards are intended to encourage and accelerate American innovation to grow the economy and tackle the nation’s greatest challenges.

Awardees are selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education or community outreach.