Dr. Sarah Parcak, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, launched GlobalXplorer, a project funded by her $1 million 2016 TED Prize. GlobalXplorer is an archaeology platform that asks people around the world to become “citizen scientists” in an effort to discover sites unknown to modern archaeologists. GlobalXplorer offers gamified discovery of archaeological sites previously unknown to most modern archaeologists, and users are rewarded for their valuable time. After signing in and taking a tutorial, users begin examining satellite images. The longer they spend on the site, the more rewards they collect, eventually leveling up to join archaeologists (virtually) for on-the-ground digs.

In addition, Dr. Parcak has been named one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2016, an annual list of the world’s pre-eminent thought leaders and public intellectuals. She was also honored with a 2016 American Ingenuity Award by Smithsonian Magazine.