MacArthur Foundation Announces 24 ‘Genius’ Prize Winners

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, in Chicago, has named 24 new MacArthur Fellows.

The fellowships, commonly referred to as “genius awards,” recognize creativity and are designed to encourage talented people to pursue their own intellectual and professional inclinations. Fellows receive $500,000 each over five years, which they are free to use as they wish.

There is no application process for the fellowship program. The foundation invites individuals from diverse fields to serve as nominators. An anonymous selection committee makes its recommendations to the foundation’s Board of Directors.

Including this year’s recipients, the foundation has named a total of 659 fellows since the program began in 1981.

Following are the 2003 fellows, and how the foundation described their accomplishments:

Guillermo Algaze, 48, professor of anthropology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, Calif. His studies of fourth and third millennium BC Mesopotamia have provided insights into the organization of ancient cities.

James J. Collins, 38, professor of biomedical engineering, Boston University. He has explored the principles behind complex biological phenomena, focusing on movement and using those principles to figure out what causes movement-related disorders.

Lydia Davis, 56, associate professor of English and writer-in-residence, State University of New York at Albany. A writer, she has published three collections of stories and a novel.

Erik Demaine, 22, assistant professor of computer science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. He has used computational geometry to solve difficult problems related to folding and bending.

Corinne Dufka, 46, consultant researcher, Human Rights Watch, Freetown, Sierra Leone. She has documented human-rights violations in Sierra Leone using photojournalism and other techniques.

Peter Gleick, 46, co-founder and president, Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, Oakland, Calif. A conservation analyst, he has demonstrated the importance of fresh-water resources for the economy, global ecology, and politics.

Osvaldo Golijov, 42, associate professor of music, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass. A composer, he has drawn on Jewish and Latin music in creating contemporary classical music.

Deborah Jin, 34, National Institute of Standards and Technology physicist and fellow at JILA, formerly known as the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, Boulder, Colo. She is studying quantum mechanics by cooling atoms to the lowest possible temperatures.

Angela Johnson, 42, children’s novelist and poet, Kent, Ohio. Her stories depict black girls struggling with such issues as adoption, care of elderly family members, and death.

Tom Joyce, 46, blacksmith, Santa Fe, N.M. His work, which includes both functional objects and abstract sculptures, has been featured in dozens of national and international exhibitions.

Sarah H. Kagan, 41, associate professor of gerontological nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. A gerontological nurse, her clinical research and teaching skills have improved standards for delivering health care to older adults with cancer.

Ned Kahn, 43, science-exhibit artist, Sebastopol, Calif. His exhibits are designed to inspire appreciation of the natural world.

Jim Yong Kim, 43, chief of Harvard Medical School’s Social Medicine and Health Inequalities division. A public-health physician, he has formed new strategies to treat and contain major diseases — including tuberculosis — in some of the poorest parts of the world.

Nawal Nour, 37, founder and director of African Women’s Health Practice, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston. A physician, she created the first practice in the United States that specializes in medical and emotional services for female immigrants who have been ritually circumcised.

Loren Rieseberg, 42, director of the plant-sciences program, Indiana University at Bloomington. A botanist, he is conducting research on sunflowers to discover how new species originate.

Amy Rosenzweig, 36, assistant professor of biochemistry, molecular biology, and cell biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. Her research on metal metabolism in living cells might shed light on the pathology of several diseases.

Pedro A. Sanchez, 62, director of tropical agriculture at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, Upper Grandview, N.Y. A soil scientist, he has helped transform millions of acres of arid land into usable land in South America.

Lateefah Simon, 26, executive director, Center for Young Women’s Development, San Francisco. She leads a program to help troubled girls make the transition from delinquency and poverty to productive adulthood.

Peter Sis, 54, illustrator, New York. He has illustrated and written children’s books about Charles Darwin, Galileo, and others.

Sarah Sze, 34, sculptor, New York. She uses ordinary objects, such as candy, nails, and plastic plants, to create striking sculptures and other artworks.

Eve Troutt Powell, 42, associate professor of history, University of Georgia, Athens. She has investigated the role of race and colonialism in the evolution of Egyptian identity and modern Islamic society.

Anders Winroth, 38, associate professor of medieval history, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. His research traces the development of medieval canon law.

Daisy Youngblood, 58, ceramicist, Santa Fe, N.M. Her clay and bronze sculptures depict animals, humans, and haunting hybrids of the two.

Xiaowei Zhuang, 31, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. A biophysicist, she is tracking the behavior of individual molecules, which may help identify therapies for such diseases as AIDS and hepatitis.