(Chicago, IL, September 22, 2009) — Once again, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has proved that "genius" takes many forms.
The MacArthur Foundation has formally announced the 2009 MacArthur Fellows, a group of 24 individuals whose talents run from medicine to journalism to papermaking.
This year's class of geniuses learned of their honor when they received a phone call "out of the blue" from the Foundation. The fellowship carries an "no-strings-attached" award of $500,000, paid over the next five years.
MacArthur Fellowships come without stipulations and reporting requirements and offer Fellows unprecedented freedom and opportunity to reflect, create, and explore. The unusual level of independence afforded to Fellows underscores the spirit of freedom intrinsic to creative endeavors. The work of MacArthur Fellows knows neither boundaries nor the constraints of age, place, and endeavor.
- a photojournalist creating a powerful visual record of 21st-century conflicts and crises (Lynsey Addario);
- a digital artist redefining how viewers experience and interact with art (Camille Utterback);
- a health services innovator building a low-cost, replicable program to address the link between poverty and poor health (Rebecca Onie);
- an applied physicist inventing flexible electronic devices that stretch boundaries and lay the foundation for a revolution in design and manufacturing (John A. Rogers);
- a geriatric physician pioneering the investigation and prevention of injuries due to falls by the elderly(Mary Tinetti);
- an investigative reporter uncovering decades-old stories of thwarted justice to ensure that unsolved murders from the Civil Rights era are finally prosecuted (Jerry Mitchell);
- a novelist capturing the essence of human endurance and renewal through characters inspired by experiences from her native Haiti (Edwidge Danticat);
- an ornithologist drawing from molecular biology, ecology, and paleontology to explore the development and evolution of birds (Richard Prum);
- a papermaker reinvigorating the art of hand-papermaking and the preservation of traditional Western and Japanese techniques and practices (Timothy Barrett); and
- an applied mathematician investigating principles underlying complex behavior to address such accessible, but perplexing, questions as how flags flutter and skin wrinkles (L. Mahadevan).
“This is a remarkable group of original and creative people, each quintessentially a MacArthur Fellow, and all brimming with promise to improve our world in myriad ways. They are illuminating our evolving planet, saving lives, building solutions to vexing problems, creating new technologies, revealing war’s wake, and illuminating beauty and mystery for us all,” said Daniel J. Socolow, Director of the MacArthur Fellows Program.
