2021 Young Explorers

Research conducted by a postdoctoral student often determines the trajectory of their academic career; the opportunity to pursue high-risk questions at this stage is rare, and failures can quickly stifle career prospects. It is therefore imperative that promising young researchers receive support at this crucial phase. To extend this critical support to early-career scientists, the NOMIS Foundation and Science/AAAS established a partnership in the form of the NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award.

Dean Knox

Assistant professor

Wharton, University of Pennsylvania

Dean Knox is the grand prize winner of the 2021 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award. He is assistant professor at the Operations, Information and Decisions Department at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Knox received his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After completing his postdoctoral fellowship at Microsoft Research, he joined the Politics Department at Princeton University as an assistant professor in 2018. Knox co-founded the Research on Policing Reform and Accountability group with Jonathan Mummolo at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His research develops statistical methods for analyzing imperfect social science data and is detailed in his essay “Revealing racial bias.”

Geoffrey Supran

Research fellow

Harvard University

Geoffrey Supran is the 2021 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award finalist. He is a research fellow in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University in Cambridge (US) and director of Climate Accountability Communication at the Climate Science Social Network.

Supran received his undergraduate degree from Trinity College, University of Cambridge, and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After completing joint postdoctoral fellowships at MIT and Harvard University, Supran became a research fellow in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard in 2019 and also Director of Climate Accountability Communication at the Climate Science Social Network in 2020. His research focus is the quantitative historical analysis of climate change disinformation and propaganda by fossil fuel interests; this research is described in his essay “Fueling their own climate narrative.”