Faculty members Loris Fichera and Lucy Caplan have been selected as fellows of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University for the 2026–27 academic year.
Fichera, an associate professor in the Department of Robotics Engineering, will use a sabbatical year to work with Harvard physicists on applying cutting-edge research on engineered materials to build robots for minimally invasive surgery. The work will build on Fichera’s research, which focuses on applying robotics and computer science to improve medicine, especially surgery.
Caplan, an assistant professor in the Department of Humanities and Arts, has been named the Marilyn Beaudry-Corbett Schlesinger Fellow at the institute and will work on her second book, a cultural history of the blind audition (in which a screen conceals a musical performer’s identity). Caplan is a critic and interdisciplinary historian who focuses on music, race, and culture in the United States.
The Harvard Radcliffe Institute is a center for interdisciplinary exploration. Fellows include scholars in the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences, as well as writers, journalists, and other distinguished professionals. Erin Solovey, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, was a fellow of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for the 2024–25 academic year.
Fichera joined the WPI faculty in 2017. He previously was a postdoctoral researcher at Vanderbilt University and the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Fichera earned his PhD at the Italian Institute of Technology and the University of Genoa.
Caplan joined the WPI faculty in 2023. She was previously a lecturer and assistant director of studies in the history and literature program at Harvard University. She earned her PhD at Yale University. Caplan’s first book, Dreaming in Ensemble: How Black Artists Transformed American Opera, was published by Harvard University Press.
The full list of the 2026–27 fellows is online here.
