This Year's MacArthur Fellowship Grants: Meet the New Class of Science Geniuses
The MacArthur Fellowship, commonly called the MacArthur Genius Award, is an annual presentation of no-strings-attached $500,000 grants (over five years) to smart people doing amazing things in the arts and sciences. This year brought 23 awards, with eight in hard science, ranging from a robotics-obsessed public school physics teacher to a biomedical animator to a black hole researcher-and, we're proud to see, one of last year's Brilliant 10 researchers, John Dabiri. Here, meet this year's Genius Scientists. John Dabiri: Though we're sure Dabiri feels honored enough--after all, he was one of our Brilliant 10 young researchers last year--we're glad to see more accolades piled on him. Dabiri, the youngest honoree this year at 30, is a CalTech Ph.D engineer who's studying the natural world for inspiration for new designs. In particular, he's focusing on the fluid dynamics of jellyfish locomotion. Amir Abo-Shaeer: The very first public schoolteacher to receive the MacArthur Grant,...