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Duke researcher lands "genius" grant for work on memory

Zachery Eanes

Portrait of a man with gray-streaked hair and a beard, wearing a dark blue shirt, smiling slightly, with a blurred bookshelf of colorful books in the background. — Photo: Courtesy of Duke University

Felipe De Brigard, a cognitive scientist and philosopher at Duke University, has joined the ranks of geniuses.

Why it matters: De Brigard is the latest researcher from the Triangle to win one of the MacArthur Foundation's Genius Grants, a prestigious award that comes with an $800,000 stipend that can be used without restrictions.

Driving the news: The 47-year-old native of Colombia was named part of the MacArthur Foundation's 2026 class of fellows on Tuesday, along with 19 other people.

Before working at Duke, De Brigard got his master's and doctorate at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Zoom in: De Brigard's work at Duke focuses on how people remember things and how their memory is influenced by their state of mind.

He focused especially on the relationship between memory and forgiveness by working with people affected by political violence in Colombia.
His lab's research found that while that act of forgiving does not affect one's memory of the content of a harmful episode, it does make the memory less emotionally intense and less negative.

Zoom out: De Brigard is the 16th person based in North Carolina to win the award.

Other winners include musician Rhiannon Giddens, Self-Help CEO Martin Daniel Eakes, UNC sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom and Duke evolutionary anthropologist Jenny Tung.

What's next: De Brigard plans to use the money to continue his lab's research around memory.

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Duke researcher lands "genius" grant for work on memory

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