For the 38th straight year, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation have announced its annual naming of new MacArthur Fellows, with 24 new inductees making up the new group for 2009.
According to the foundation’s website, the new Fellows were all chosen for their "creativity, originality, and potential to make important contributions in the future" after being recommended for the award by nominators who had been specifically invited by the foundation to do so. Each Fellow will receive $500,000 in what the foundation calls "no strings attached" support over the next five years, allowing them to spend the money in any way possible without any stipulations or reporting requirements
Among the recipients are 36-year-old economist Esther Duflo from MIT, who was nominated for her analysis of the cycle of poverty in South Asia and Africa, as well as 43-year-old Theodore Zoli, a bridge engineer for the HNTB Corporation who is making technological advances in protecting transportation infrastructure from natural disasters.
The other 2009 Fellows selected by the foundation are Lynsey Addario, Maneesh Agrawala, Timothy Barrett, Mark Bradford, Edwidge Danticat, Rackstraw Downs, Deborah Eisenberg, Lin He, Peter Huybers, James Longley, L. Mahadevan, Heather McHugh, Jerry Mitchell, Rebecca Onie, Richard Prum, John A. Rogers, Elyn Saks, Jill Seaman, Beth Shapiro, Daniel Sigman, Mary Tinetti, and Camille Utterback.
"Through these Fellowships, we celebrate and support exceptional men and women of all ages and in all fields who dream, explore, take risks, invent, and build in new and unexpected ways in the interest of shaping a better future for us all," said MacArthur President Robert Gallucci.
The inaugural class of MacArthur Fellows was named in 1981. Including this year’s additions, there have been 805 MacArthur Fellows named since the program’s inception.
