MacArthur Genius Awards

Living in scholarly blue states means being surrounded by people who are creative, imaginative and driven to make important contributions to our future.

A few blocks from my house lives stem-cell biologist Sally Temple of Slingerlands. A few miles from my hotel (I'm in Providence, R.I., tonight) lives anthropologist Stephen Houston of Brown University. Of the 25 people in the U.S. that the MacArthur Fellowship awards with $500,000 "genius awards", both of them, Temple and Houston, just happen to be part of my assignment radar this month.

Temple works for the New York Neural Stem Cell Institute at SUNY Albany. She's demonstrated breakthroughs in treating Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's and spinal cord injury. Houston has worked in excavation sites throughout Mexico studying ancient Mayan texts and hieroglyphics to help write about the political and social systems in Mesoamerica.

MacArthur fellowships have been awarded to 781 people since their inauguration in 1981. Candidates do not apply for the fellowships but rather are nominated by fellow scholars and artists and then chosen by a 12-member selection committee.