Corbally says that the Chicago-based foundation's so-called "genius awards" - about a quarter of a million dollars for the recipient to do with pretty much as he or she wants - could be coming to an end in science. MacArthur has been giving out these awards since 1981, and last year nine of the 31 awards went to scientists.
Charles Archambeau, a theoretical geophysicist at the University of Colorado whose work on seismic source theory has had implications for nuclear weapons testing and testing detection. Philip DeVries, a lepidopterist whose work in Costa Rica has been critical for tropical conservation efforts. Helen Edwards, the physicist who heads the accelerator division of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. John Fleagle, a primate paleontologist and professor of anatomy at the School of Medicine at SUNY, Stony Brook. Raymond Jeanloz, a geologist interested in mineral physics and high-pressure petrology at the University of California, Berkeley. ...
