State High Alum Wins MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’

A Centre County native is among the 23 people to be named 2016 MacArthur Fellows by the MacArthur Foundation.

Bill Thies, a 1997 State College Area High School graduate, was honored for his work creating “communication and digital technologies to advance the social and economic well­-being of low ­income communities in the developing world,” according to the foundation

MacArthur Fellows receive  five-­year, $625,000 fellowships, commonly known as ‘Genius Grants.’

Thies is a computer scientist and senior researcher in the Technologies for Emerging Markets Group for Microsoft Research India. Based in Bangalore, Thies’ work has focused on health care, education and human-computer interaction, among other areas.

His recent work includes the 99DOTS project, a low-cost method for monitoring medication adherence using mobile phones, which had a successful pilot with 3,000 tuberculosis patients in India that is now being brought to a larger scale.

“For Bill Thies to be recognized by the MacArthur Fellows Program as one of the world’s most impactful people is incredible,” State College Area School District Superintendent Bob O’Donnell said in a release.

“He is a very talented and creative human being who is making our world a better place. Our school district community is very proud of him and his work. We know that Bill stays in touch with his family here in State College, and we’re hopeful that he might someday soon spend some time with our students. We believe that through connecting with such an accomplished alumnus, students would be inspired to pursue careers and lives that make a difference in communities and benefit others.”

In recent years, Thies also has worked on an interactive voice forum for citizen journalists and Massively Empowered Classroom, a project to support blended education in India and bring high quality classroom material to a vast number of students.

‘A leader in the field of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), Thies combines technical expertise in several subfields of computer science with a deep understanding of the real­-world constraints and needs of the communities in rural India he hopes to reach,’ the foundation stated in a release. ‘He overcomes challenges such as stark financial constraints, limited access to internet services, and low levels of literacy by devising interfaces between basic mobile phones, which are relatively affordable and widely used, and modern networks and applications.’

Thies received degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, including a Ph.D. in 2009.