Meet our 2024 Fellowship Cohort

We have 25 new progress writers participating in our Blog-Building Intensive Fellowship.

We’re thrilled to introduce our second cohort of 2024 Blog-Building Intensive Fellows. 

This year’s fellows are a group of 25 progress writers selected from a pool of over 350 applicants.

They are founders, researchers, academics, policy-makers, capital allocators, and journalists from across the U.S., Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, the U.K., and Hong Kong. And they will be writing about nuclear fusion, reproductive longevity, space manufacturing, housing reform, urban mobility, industrial policy, AI safety and opportunity, biotechnology, European innovation, eco-modernism and so much more.

We’re pleased to have once again assembled a thoughtful and innovative group of progress writers:

Dean Ball is a research fellow at the Mercatus Center. He is writing about AI regulation, robotics, abundance, materials science, and philosophies of progress.  You can subscribe to Dean’s work on his Substack, Hyperdimensional. 

Rosie Campbell leads the policy frontiers team at OpenAI. She’ll be writing about governance of agentic systems, the intersection of AI and epistemics, and the ethics of digital minds. You can subscribe to Rosie’s work on her Substack. 

Sarah Constantin is a science generalist and consultant with a math Ph.D. She is writing about speculative technological ambitions like longevity and human enhancement. You can subscribe to Sarah’s work on her Substack, Rough Diamonds. 

Sean Fleming is a former energy and natural resources consultant turned progress intellectual. He’ll be writing about energy, infrastructure, advanced manufacturing and building a zero-carbon energy system. You can subscribe to Sean’s work on his Substack, Clean Energy Review. 

Jeff Fong is the board chair of YIMBY Action and an early proponent of YIMBYism.  He is writing about urbanism and technology. You can subscribe to Jeff’s work on his Substack, Urban Proxima. 

Lauren Gilbert is a journalist and research fellow at Open Philanthropy.  She is writing about global development, innovation policy, and migration. You can subscribe to Lauren’s work on her Substack.

Dominik Hermle is a German medical doctor and clinical neuroscientist writing about European dynamism, European technology policy, and accelerating healthcare progress. You can subscribe to his work on his Substack. 

Mary Hui is a Hong Kong-based journalist. She is writing about the global industrial contest, innovation, and manufacturing. You can subscribe to her work on her Substack, a/symmetric. 

Ben James is a writer and builder in the grid decarbonization space. He is writing about energy and climate technologies. You can subscribe to his work on his blog. 

Kevin Kohler is a Geneva-based risk management professional. He is writing about AI analogies, policies and futures. You can subscribe to his work on his Substack, Machinocene. 

Rob L'Heureux is a mechanical design engineer and technical product marketing expert. He is writing about semiconductors, manufacturing, and advancing material progress. You can subscribe to his work on his Substack, Happy Future. 

Robert Long is a Research Associate at the Center for AI Safety working with the NYU Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program. He is writing about AI sentience and welfare. You can subscribe to his work on his Substack, Experience Machines. 

Quade Macdonald is a “space nerd” and research fellow at the Center for Space Governance. He is writing about manufacturing in space, bottlenecks in manufacturing and industrial policy, and the economic forces of space settlement. You can subscribe to his work on his Substack. 

Niko McCarty is a former bioengineer and data journalist and the founding editor of Asimov Press. He is writing about biotechnology and metascience. You can subscribe to his—and other progress writer’s—work on his substack, Asimov Press. 

Duncan McClement is a student at the University of Cambridge, a Polaris Fellow and a research associate at the Adam Smith Institute. He is writing about housing, energy, and innovation policy. You can subscribe to his and his collaborator Jason Hausenloy’s, work on their Substack, Model Thinking. 

Jordan McGillis is the economics editor at the Manhattan Institute and an adjunct fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute. He is writing about chip manufacturing, energy, and globalization. You can follow his work on Twitter. 

Jonah Messinger is a PhD candidate in Physics at the University of Cambridge, an affiliated researcher at MIT, and an energy analyst at the Breakthrough Institute. He is writing about metascience, funding innovation, nuclear fusion and the budding field of nucleonics. You can subscribe to his work on his Substack, Seeking Scientific Revolutions.

Andrew Miller is a transportation consultant with a PhD in history from Johns Hopkins. He is writing about automated driving, mobility, transportation and urbanism. You can subscribe to his work on his Substack, Changing Lanes. 

Grant Mulligan is a capital allocator who focuses on climate sustainability impact investments. He’ll be writing about ecomodernism and environmental technology. You can subscribe to his work on his Substack, Progress Accumulation. 

Steve Newman is an 8x technical founder (including at one startup that originated what became Google Docs).  He is writing about AI policy, regulation and public discourse. You can subscribe to his work on his Substack, Am I Stronger Yet? 

Jannik Reigl is the media and policy lead for a German nuclear fusion startup. He is writing about energy, metascience, and innovation policy. You can subscribe to his work on his Substack, Progress: Real and Imagined. 

Julius Simonelli is an AI and machine learning engineer and technical writer for the Center for AI Safety.  He is writing about AI impacts, safety and alignment. You can subscribe to his work on his Substack, The Grey Matter.

Ruxandra Teslo is a PhD candidate in genomics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. She is writing about reproductive biology, accelerating progress in biology, and philosophies of progress. You can subscribe to her work on her Substack. 

Robert Tolan is an Emergent Ventures grantee and Polaris Fellow. He is writing about housing, urbanism and advancing progress in Ireland. You can subscribe to his work on his Substack. 

Dynomight is a pseudonymous blogger writing about AI, statistics and healthcare at dynomight.net.

You can follow all of our fellows on Twitter via this list.  

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Finally, a special thank you to our program advisors who will be holding lectures and Q&As with our fellows over the next 8 weeks, including: Eli Dourado, Max Roser, Noah Smith, Tomas Pueyo, Tyler Cowen, Virginia Postrel, Andrej Karpathy, Blake Scholl, Bob McGrew, Brian Potter, Delian Asparouhov, Ela Madej, Holden Karnofsky, Kanjun Qiu, Timothy Lee, and Chandler Tuttle.

And thank you to our sponsors, the Cosmos Institute and Alpha School, for making this year's fellowship cohort possible!