College of the Holy Cross | Holy Cross Magazine

Among the 24 individuals chosen to receive this year’s John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowships are Osvaldo Golijov, associate professor of music, and James J. Collins ’87, professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University. Both will receive a $500,000 “no strings attached” grant in support of their work over the next five years.

According to the MacArthur Foundation, “the Fellows Program is designed to emphasize the importance of the creative individual in society. Fellows are selected for the originality and creativity of their work and the potential to do more in the future.”

“ We are proud to count two members of the Holy Cross family among the recipients of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowships,” says Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., president of Holy Cross. “Osvaldo Golijov and Jim Collins exemplify the breadth and depth of opportunity available in a liberal arts education. Brilliant composers and scientists alike are encouraged and shaped by institutions like Holy Cross, dedicated to bringing together outstanding students and gifted faculty to explore fundamental questions.”

Golijov is the world-renowned composer of La Pasión Según San Marcos (The Passion According to St. Mark). In September 2000, Golijov’s La Pasión had its world premiere in Stuttgart, Germany, where it opened to fantastic critical acclaim. In February 2001, his La Pasión had its United States debut at Symphony Hall in Boston, performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and the Schola Cantorum de Caracas. An Argentine-born Jew, Golijov was chosen by conductor Helmut Rilling to compose this original work for the 250-year commemoration of Bach’s death; only three other people in the world were selected for this honor. Golijov’s La Pasión stylistically and visually reimagines Bach’s “Passions” on the streets of Cuba and Brazil.

Golijov earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. He was the first-prize winner of two Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards—in 1993 for Yiddishbbuk, and, in 1995, for The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. Golijov’s music is frequently performed around the world by numerous ensembles and orchestras, including the BSO, the Kronos Quartet, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the London Sinfonietta.

Considered one of the most inventive researchers in the field of biomedical engineering, James J. Collins was a Dana Scholar, a Fenwick Scholar and the winner of the Presidential Service Award as an undergraduate at Holy Cross. Graduating summa cum laude in 1987 with a degree in physics, he was the valedictorian for his class. A Rhodes Scholar, Collins earned his doctoral degree in medical engineering at Oxford University in 1990.

Professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, he is also co-founder and co-director of the University’s Center for Biodynamics and director of the Applied Biodynamics Laboratory. His research focuses on understanding how biological signals can be either degraded or, counterintuitively, enhanced by noise. Collins has recently applied his understanding of the biophysics of noise to the control of gene networks in living cells. He has published in journals such as Nature, Physical Review Letters, Chaos, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.