LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 7, 2025) — University of Kentucky Libraries has honored W. Brent Seales, Ph.D., the Stanley and Karen Pigman Chair of Heritage Science and Professor of Computer Science, as the 2025 recipient of the UK Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement.
Seales will be recognized May 15 at the UK Libraries Spring Celebration.
Seales has been teaching and mentoring students at UK since 1991. For the past 20 years, Seales’ research has used advanced technology to restore and redeem cultural and historical artifacts. Seales’ innovations — including the invention of “virtual unwrapping” — have allowed previously unreadable materials from the ancient world to be identified and analyzed. Rescuing texts that may be central to Biblical scholarship and the formation of the ancient world has become Seales’ primary passion.
“Dr. Seales embodies all of the qualities that this award is meant to recognize, and it is an honor to celebrate the achievements from his remarkable career,” said Doug Way, dean of UK Libraries. “His creativity and tireless pursuit of knowledge show us that there is always more to discover. It is an ethos and a spirit that we are excited to hold up as an inspiration to all the scholars, researchers, teachers and artists at UK and across the Commonwealth who are attempting to wrestle with the impossible.”
As a result of his research, Seales has become renowned by collectors and curators across the globe, earning a reputation as “the guy who can read the unreadable.” In 2015, Seales and his research team used virtual unwrapping to reveal, for the very first time, a complete text from a manuscript so damaged it would never be opened and read via traditional means. The text was identified as the oldest known Hebrew copy of the book of Leviticus (other than the Dead Sea Scrolls) and carbon dated to the third century C.E. The reading of the text from within the damaged scroll received international recognition from Science Advances, The New York Times, Le Monde and The Times of London, among others, and has been hailed as one of the most significant discoveries in biblical archaeology of the past decade.
Seales has been awarded competitive extramural funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation and the United Kingdom’s Arts & Humanities Research Council. From 2012-13 he was a Google Visiting Scientist in Paris where he continued his work on the “virtual unwrapping” of the Herculaneum scrolls. He most recently served as a Getty Conservation Institute Scholar from 2019-20 where he developed data science and infrastructure approaches to the study of cultural heritage in all its forms. He is the Principal Investigator on the EduceLab project, a first-of-its-kind world class heritage science lab to be built at the University of Kentucky. Seales holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin (Ph.D. and M.S.), and the University of Southwestern Louisiana (B.S.).
“I am deeply honored to be recognized by the UK Libraries National Advisory Board with this year’s medallion,” Seales said. “Knowing the remarkable achievements and high intellectual standards set by the other individuals who have received the medallion before me, I feel extremely grateful to receive this recognition for my work with damaged materials.”
One of UK’s most prestigious awards, the UK Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement is awarded annually to a Kentucky resident whose accomplishments in the fields of science, literature, art or philanthropy have made a profound impact on the state and represent the pinnacle of creative or scholarly thought.
Selections are determined by the UK Libraries National Advisory Board, which takes great pride in recognizing high intellectual achievement by Kentuckians and encouraging creative thought across the state.
Seales will be honored at the celebration along with several other award winners, including:
The Spring Celebration will be 6 p.m. Thursday, May 15, at William T. Young Library on UK’s campus. The event is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are requested.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
