Jack Carson, a second-year undergraduate at MIT majoring in electrical engineering and computer science, has been named a 2026 Udall Scholar, one of up to 65 undergraduates nationally to receive the prestigious $7,500 award.
The Udall Scholarship honors students who have demonstrated a commitment to the environment, Indigenous health care, or tribal public policy. Carson is only the third MIT student to win this award, and the first to win for tribal policy.
Carson, a member of the Cherokee Nation and resident of Oklahoma, exemplifies the multidisciplinary approach to problem-solving that the Udall Scholarship seeks to honor. His work spans artificial intelligence, biomedical research, Indigenous community development, and ethics.
"Jack is the type of leader the Udall Foundation exists to support," says Kim Benard, associate dean for distinguished fellowships. "He's not only conducting cutting-edge research, but he's actively creating opportunities for Indigenous students to enter tech fields."
At MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), Carson works in the Barzilay Lab, developing multiomics models for personalized therapeutic target identification. His work on deep learning and statistical physics has resulted in a sole-author paper published at the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML).
Carson founded Code.Tulsa, a summer technology program designed to introduce Indigenous high school students to computer science and tech careers. The initiative addresses a significant gap: Indigenous communities remain highly underrepresented in technology fields, despite the potential for tech to advance tribal sovereignty and economic development.
This year, Carson won the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics Essay Contest. He is an accomplished musician who has performed at Carnegie Hall and with the National Opera, a motorcycle racer, and a self-described philosopher deeply committed to questions of justice and responsibility.
