Claire
Tomlin
is
officially
a
genius.
A
1992
Waterloo
alumna
from
electrical
engineering,
Claire
is
a
bright
young
electrical
engineer,
specializing
in
aviation,
with
faculty
appointments
at
both
Stanford
and
Berkeley
and
more
than
120
papers
to
her
name.
But
the
phone
call
from
the
MacArthur
Foundation
still
came
as
a
surprise.
Popularly
known
as
genius
grants,
the
$500,000
no-strings
MacArthur
Fellowships
go
to
the
most
creative,
promising
people
the
foundation
can
find.
There’s
no
application
process:
the
phone
simply
rings.
The
2006
geniuses
included
a
jazz
violinist,
a
neurobiologist,
a
country
doctor
–
and
Claire.
Claire’s
expertise
is
in
the
modelling
of
control
systems.
Her
work
has
an
aeronautical
flavour:
she’s
developed
protocols
to
automate
some
of
the
intricate
work
of
air-traffic
controllers,
and
designed
control
systems
that
will
let
teams
of
unmanned
aerial
vehicles
fly
in
formation.
Claire
wants
to
use
her
genius
grant
to
apply
her
control
theory
expertise
to
matters
biological:
how
the
intricate
activation
and
de-activation
of
genes
orchestrates
the
development
of
fruit
fly
wings,
for
instance.
The
unique
research
will
be
another
high
point
in
an
already
high-flying
career.
Alumna, Electrical Engineering (BASc ’92)