Swanlund Endowed Chair: Richard Powers

Richard Powers is Swanlund Chair and Center for Advanced Study Professor of English.  He is the author of nine novels that explore connections among disparate disciplines such as photography, artificial intelligence, music composition, molecular biology, game theory, virtual reality, business, and neuroscience.  Professor Power’s books have received various prizes including the Rosenthal Award, Vursell Award, James Fenimore Cooper Prize, Corrington Award, PEN/Hemingway Special Citation, W. H. Smith Literary Award (U.K.), Dos Passos Prize, Ambassador Book Award of the English Speaking Union, and TIME Magazine’s Book of the Year.  He is a MacArthur fellow, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a recipient of a Lannan Literary Award.  His most recent novel, The Echo Maker, won the 2006 National Book Award.