Support the Benjamin Lloyd Cloer '15 Scholarship

This memorial scholarship honors
Benjamin Lloyd Cloer ’15, who devoted his life to improve the condition of humanity by seeking an education in areas he believed would make it possible to achieve that goal.

Lloyd was awarded an academic scholarship to attend Pomona College in Claremont, CA. In addition to his course studies, Lloyd worked as a research assistant studying biological neural networks and the binding of diabetes drugs using Dual Polarization Interferometry. He was a member of the Future-Tech Club, Bit Coin Club and the Nu Alpha Phi Frarority. In 2015, he earned a Bachelor of Science in neuroscience with a minor in mathematics from Pomona.

Attending this wonderful college opened the door to his future plans and gave him the excellent education and the breeding ground for all great ideas. In the fall of 2018, Lloyd entered the newly established Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence (M.S.A.I.) program at the University of Georgia. He also worked as a professor assistant at UGA. While at UGA, Duke University selected Lloyd to develop and teach a four-week summer course, "An Introduction to AI," which was held for high school students on the Georgia Tech campus and which was designed entirely by him.

Lloyd was very interested in perfect future societies based on compassion and equality and thoroughly researched models and techniques to sustain small tribal societies and started writing an epic story about a future led by AI. His favorite book was Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter.

Lloyd loved nature. If there was a tree to climb or a wall to walk along rather than a sidewalk, there he’d be, usually barefoot. Lloyd really took his time to completely immerse himself in whatever he was experiencing. He could easily spend an entire day exploring a tiny slice of land. Luckily, he had the privilege to travel to most of the US National Parks, as well as England, Scotland, The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Lloyd was a skilled climber, but loved to kayak, dirt bike and hike, or anything that would take him outdoors and into the wild. He had so many big plans and so many places he wanted to see, people to meet and dogs to pet.

Lloyd was completely magnanimous, tolerant, and forward thinking. One would be hard pressed to remember an instance of Lloyd speaking an unkind word. He took the time to fully understand the “why” of a person’s opinion or behavior because he cared very much to learn even from the most “difficult of people”. One would see him speak to all people with equal interest and lack of judgment. Fully understanding that circumstance and education are likely responsible for different paths of mind and lifestyle. Whilst looking through old photos of Lloyd one would notice how thoughtful he looked in the moment, completely focused on whatever he was doing or whomever he was with. Lloyd was thoughtful about everything and everyone. Interested in everything and everyone—and always saw the best in people. He failed to and refused to judge or see evil. Instead of seeing what he knew and you didn’t, he was fascinated by the knowledge that you had and he hadn’t—yet. He was passionate about music, his above-mentioned writing, art, and science. He was an active member of the Burning Man family where he enjoyed many “Burns” to experience a free society among peers.

Lloyd’s dream job was to become a research scientist for DeepMind. He planned to apply for the scholarship offered at Oxford University to pursue his PHD in this program while working for DeepMind. Only one month shy of completing his master’s degree, University of Georgia has decided to grant him this postmortem and will be collected by his family at a future date.

The Benjamin Lloyd Cloer '15 Scholarship will allow those dedicated to science and a better future for mankind to take a big step towards achieving their goals. Thank you for your support. If this scholarship fund reaches $25,000, it will become endowed in perpetuity.

Thank you for making someone’s dream come true and thank you for your help in remembering Lloyd. He often spoke of the singularity with friends, and we hope that he is now part of it in some alternate universe.