Human-Computer Interaction Institute Assistant Professor Chris Harrison joined 17 of the nation's most innovative early career scientists and engineers as a recipient of a 2014 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering.

Established in 1988, the Packard Fellowship program provides early-career scientists with flexible funding and the freedom to take risks and explore new frontiers in their fields. Each year, the foundation invites 50 U.S. universities to nominate two faculty members for consideration. Those honored as fellows receive $875,000 over a five-year period to pursue their research.

"The Packard Fellowships are an investment in an elite group of scientists and engineers who have demonstrated vision for the future of their fields and for the betterment of our society," said Lynn Orr, Keleen and Carlton Beal Professor at Stanford University and chair of the Packard Fellowships Advisory Panel. "Through the Fellowships program, we are able to provide these talented individuals with the tools and resources they need to take risks, explore new frontiers and follow uncharted paths."

For Harrison, that path has involved research into new interface technologies that foster powerful, natural interactions between humans and computers. At CMU, he directs the Human-Computer Interaction Institute's Future Interfaces Group, which broadly investigates novel sensing technologies and interaction techniques in emerging technologies like mobile computing, touch interfaces and gestural interaction. Harrison was recently named as one of the top 30 scientists under 30 by Forbes, a top 35 innovator under 35 by MIT Technology Review, and one of six innovators to watch in 2013 by Smithsonian. He has been awarded fellowships by Google, Microsoft Research and Qualcomm.

"This is a unbelievable honor," Harrison said. "Over the next few years, I hope to significantly advance the state of the art in projected interfaces, such that we can effortlessly infuse everyday surfaces — tables, doors, walls — with computation, communication and information capabilities."

Since its inception, the Packard Foundation has award $346 million to 543 scientists and engineers from 52 top national universities. Harrison is just the fifth Carnegie Mellon researcher to receive a fellowship. Other CMU fellows include Associate Professor of Computer Science Luis von Ahn, Computer Science Professor Venkatesan Guruswami, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Dannie Durand, and Lord Professor of Chemical Engineering Andrew Gellman.

For more on the Packard Fellowships, click here.