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MacArthur Dubs Jeanne a Genius

MacArthur Dubs Jeanne a Genius

Today the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced their 22 new fellows, including Chicago architect Jeanne Gang. Congratulations to Jeanne and everyone at Studio Gang. Best known for the Aqua Tower, the firm has generated consistently innovative solutions for houses, community and cultural projects, beginning, most notably, with the Starlight Theatre in 2003 all the way through their contribution to MoMA’s Foreclosed exhibition, currently in development. One of the most prestigious awards in the country for artistic, intellectual, scientific, and professional achievement, the MacArthur also comes with a $500,000 prize, doled out over five years.

Other fellows, via a release from the foundation, include:

  • radio producer engaging a new generation of listeners with audio explorations of scientific and philosophical questions that recreate the thrill of discovery (Jad Abumrad);
  • sports medicine researcher advancing the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of sports-related brain injuries to improve the safety of athletes of all ages (Kevin Guskiewicz);
  • technologist and electrical engineer inventing low-cost, easy to deploy sensor systems to enable users to track household energy consumption and to make buildings more responsive to our needs (Shwetak Patel);
  • clinical psychologist deepening understanding of self-injury and suicide among adolescents and adults in the interest of saving lives and influencing mental health care in our society (Matthew Nock);
  • parasitologist decoding the genomes of virulent human pathogens that cause rare diseases and threaten the lives of millions in the developing world (Elodie Ghedin);
  • long-form journalist crafting richly illuminating accounts of ordinary people in such rapidly changing societies as Reform Era China (Peter Hessler);
  • percussionist and composer infusing Latin jazz with bold new energy and sound, dazzling technical abilities, and rhythmically adventurous compositions (Dafnis Prieto);
  • an evolutionary geneticist resolvingsuch long-standing, fundamental questions as the evolutionary benefits of carrying two copies of each gene and of sexual over asexual reproduction (Sarah Otto);
  • public historian reframing the history of colonial America in works that illuminate the complex relationship between African and Cherokee peoples (Tiya Miles); and
  • poet and translator mining the classical world and poetic techniques to craft imaginative explorations of contemporary life that evoke insights about antiquity’s relevance for today (A.E. Stallings).

A full list of winners can be found here.

Numerous architects have won in the past, not every group of fellows includes an architect. Previous winners include architects Elizabeth Diller, Richardo Scofidio, and Samuel Mockbee and artist designer James Carpenter.

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