UH alumna Pamela Samuelson Receives MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant

Among the 23 MacArthur Fellows selected this year by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation was University of Hawai'i alumna Pamela Samuelson. Samuelson graduated from UH in 1971 with a bachelor of arts degree in history and earned her master of arts degree in the UH political science department in 1972. She is "a lawyer and scholar working in the emerging area of intellectual property rights for the digital era," according to a news release from the MacArthur Foundation. (The full text of the MacArthur Foundation's news release is on the World Wide Web at http://www.macfdn.org/release97.htm)

MacArthur Fellowships, popularly known as "genius grants," are unrestricted, no-strings-attached awards in support of persons, not projects or organizations. Recipients are free to use the awards as they please. The fellowships range from $150,000 to $375,000, depending on the age of the recipient; payments are spread over five years. Samuelson's grant will total $295,000.

Samuelson is a professor of information management and law at the University of California, Berkeley. She brings together expertise in computer technology and software as well as intellectual property law (she received her J.D. at Yale in 1976) to foster optimum use of the communications resources available on the eve of the 21st century.

Responding to a congratulatory message from political science department chair Kathy Ferguson, Samuelson wrote that she remembered faculty in the political science department at UH "with considerable fondness. They trained me well for the kind of work I've been doing ever since."