CHICAGO, Sept. 23, 2008
2008 MacArthur "Genius" Grants Announced
Scientists, Artists Among The Gifted Recognized For Their Accomplishments And Promise
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Biologist Kirsten Bomblies, photographed at a laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tuebingen, Germany on Friday, Sept. 19, 2008, studies the evolution of plant genetics. (AP Photo/Daniel Maurer)
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Dr. Regina Benjamin struggled to rebuild her non-profit Bayou La Batre, Ala., clinic which was heavily damaged during Hurricane Katrina (her office's records can be seen drying in the sun on the deck, Oct. 7, 2005). (AP/Victor Calhoun, Mobile Register)
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Former pro basketball player Will Allen, photographed Sept. 7, 2008, transformed a former garden center into an urban vegetable farm, which provides healthy food to underserved population of Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
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Composer Walter Kitundu creates electro-acoustic works with instruments he has created. With the Kalimba Koto Phonoharp (left), the vibrations from the kalimba and the strings are picked up by the turntable needle and sent through the speaker, where they in turn influence the strings and kalimba again. (Kitundu.com)
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The $500,000 fellowships were announced Tuesday by the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Recipients may use the money however they wish.
Dr. Regina Benjamin said the money will help rebuild her rural health clinic in Bayou La Batre, Ala., which serves 4,400 patients. It was rebuilt by volunteers after being destroyed by Katrina, only to burn down months later.
"The patients came by and they were crying," said Benjamin, 51, remembering one woman who handed her an envelope with a $7 donation to rebuild. The new clinic is about half-built, she said.
"If she can find $7, I can figure out the rest," Benjamin said. "The patients I treat have their own disasters. Hopefully this grant will help them in some way. It will be as much theirs as it is mine."
John Ochsendorf, a West Virginia native and an associate professor of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., said he at first didn't believe the news that he'd received a grant.
"I had to sit down. I had tears running down my face. I had a hard time breathing," Ochsendorf said. "It changes everything. This is validation."
Ochsendorf, 34, uses engineering and architecture to explain the ancient world. His research team studies Incan suspension bridges that cross gorges of the Andes Mountains.
The MacArthur Foundation names the fellows, who are recommended to the foundation's board by a 12-member selection committee.
Jonathan Fanton, president of the MacArthur Foundation, said he makes several calls a year to recipients - including at least four this year - and winners are usually shocked.
"Generally, there's a pause and expressions of disbelief," he said. "I've had people drop the phone or say they need a minute because they feel weak."
Seven previous MacArthur grant recipients went on to receive Nobel Prizes, Fanton said.
"Giving support to exceptionally talented people allows them to develop their talents, and society is better for the work they do," Fanton said.
Other winners of this year's fellowships include an inventor of musical instruments, an urban farmer from Milwaukee, a saxophonist, a stage lighting designer, an astronomer who studies the geometry of the universe, a novelist who writes about ethnic conflict and a critical-care physician who studies how to avoid human error in clinical practices.
One of this year's recipients is Will Allen, 59, of Milwaukee, who provides healthy food to underserved and urban populations using low-cost farming techniques.
(leilajosefowicz.com)
"If I'm not worried about playing the circuit just for financial reasons, this can give me a buffer," Josefowicz said. "I'll spend more time studying and listening out there and choosing the composer I want to work with. I'm so grateful to work with composers to bring more concertos to the violin repertoire."
Kirsten Bomblies, 34, a plant evolutionary geneticist in Tubingen, Germany, said the money will allow her to expand her research.
"Maybe try to explore some slightly riskier options that maybe I otherwise wouldn't be able to get funding for," said Bomblies, originally from Castle Rock, Colo. "We rarely have that opportunity. I think I might write a book at the end of it all, a scientific book ... just to get some of the ideas that we have on paper."
Rachel Wilson, a 34-year-old neurobiologist at Harvard Medical School, said her grant will help pay for experiments she might not otherwise have been able to afford. Wilson studies electrical activity in the brain, and her findings may affect treatments for Parkinson's disease and deafness.
"As scientists we're kind of trained to try to keep ideas in pace with funding," she said. "It's difficult to think about experiments that aren't in your price range, so to speak, and maybe that crushes the creative process."
List of 2008 MacArthur Foundation Fellows
The following 25 fellows each will receive $500,000 over the next five years from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation:
The Arts
Community
Medicine
Science
By Associated Press Writer Caryn Rousseau; the AP's Michael Tarm in Chicago and Matt Moore in Berlin contributed to this report.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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The secrets of tennis legend 
Posted by TheVicar1 at 10:23 AM : Sep 23, 2008
Quit begging. They aren''t going to give you any money.
Yeah, but,,They forgot me!
LOL
If the MacArthur Foundation really wanted to make a difference, they should give some money to a few idiots, the ones who havent got a prayer of ever getting beyond flippin burgers at Mickey Dees.