Washington Post highlights the large science component in the 2011 MacArthur “genius” Fellows

By Steven T. Corneliussen

A 27 September Washington Post story—repeating  a New Scientist story—briefly listed and described the nine scientists and one science radio host who each received a $500 000 MacArthur “genius” grant last week.

The ten made up almost half of this year's 22 awardees. They include Markus Greiner, “a condensed-matter physicist at Harvard University, who is developing ways to trap ultra-cold atoms to study quantum phenomena such as superconductivity under well-controlled conditions,” Shwetak Patel, “a computer scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, who invented a series of sensor systems that let people track water and energy use in their homes,” and Jad Abumrad, “co-host and producer of ‘Radiolab,’ a show that explores the mystery and wonder of science through playful, curious and deeply thoughtful conversations with scientists.” Also included are a parasitologist/virologist, a  sports medicine researcher, a clinical psychologist, an evolutionary geneticist, a chemist, a neuropathologist and a developmental biologist.

The MacArthur Fellows Program says of itself that it “awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.”

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Steven T. Corneliussen, a media analyst for the American Institute of Physics, monitors three national newspapers, the weeklies Nature and Science, and occasionally other publications. His reports to AIP are published in "Science and the media." He has published op-eds in the Washington Post and other newspapers, has written for NASA's history program, and is a science writer at a particle-accelerator laboratory.