(9/22/09) – There are 24 new geniuses in America as decided by the the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation based in Chicago. The foundation has awarded each $500,000.00 with no strings attached and no explicit expectations.- Lynsey Addario, photojournalist
- Maneesh Agrawala, computer vision technologist
- Timothy Barrett, papermaker/conservator
- Mark Bradford (CalArts, Los Angeles), mixed media artist
- Edwidge Danticat, novelist
- Rackstraw Downes, realist painter
- Esther Duflo, economist
- Deborah Eisenberg, short story writer
- Lin He, molecular biologist
- Peter Huybers, climate scientist
- James Longley, filmmaker
- L. Mahadevan, applied mathematician
- Heather McHugh, poet
- Jerry Mitchell, investigative reporter
- Rebecca Onie, public health entrepreneur
- Richard Prum, ornithologist
- John A. Rogers, applied physicist
- Elyn Saks (USC, Los Angeles), mental health lawyer
- Jill Seaman, infectious disease physician
- Beth Shapiro, evolutionary biologist
- Daniel Sigman, biogeochemist
- Mary Tinetti, geriatric physician
- Camille Utterback, digital artist
- Theodore Zoli, bridge engineer
There have been 805 Genius Grant recipients to date. They will take their half-million dollar "fellowships" and spend them anyway they choose without answering to anyone or anything but conscience. Why are they geniuses? The MacArthur Foundation explains that they select activists, artists, and scientists of every stripe for what they might do as importantly as for what they have done. Therefore, some are geniuses-to-be with their best work yet to be realized. The foundation's president, Bob Gallucci, explains: "This is not just an award for past accomplishment [but] for the potential to do more creative things in the future." The foundation, established in 1978, is a private, independent grant-making institution dedicated to helping groups and individuals to improve the human condition.
There are a disproportionate number of recipients who adhere to one particular religion, be it culturally or spiritually. There are also many youthful fellows with bright futures now able to blossom into the geniuses they have have the potential to become. There are no age restrictions. One is even identified as a high functioning schizophrenic, who is currently a professor at USC. Their work and fields of interest also seems to have influenced judges -- from the economy to climate change, short story writing to poetry, from engineering to biology, visual art to applied math.
- MacArthur Foundation: macfound.org
Past Buddhist Geniuses?
UCLA's distinguished faculty includes MacArthur "genius grant" Fellows...Schopen, whose books include Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks (with Donald S. Lopez)
Nov 23, 2007...Moreover, American Buddhist converts like Saunders, who won the MacArthur Foundation's ''genius grant'' last year, are scooping up accolades...
On May 23, a high-ranking Buddhist abbot and a U of Michigan professor will read...and two UCLA Buddhologists—MacArthur "genius" grant recipient Gregory...
Jun 15, 1993...The so-called genius awards from the MacArthur Foundation went to... Leonard van der Kuijp, 40, Buddhist and Tibetan scholar...
