Quick Takes

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is today announcing the 2009 MacArthur Fellows (commonly called "genius grants," although the foundation doesn't use the term) and academics are among those winning the $500,000, no-strings award for "exceptional creativity, as demonstrated through a track record of significant achievement, and manifest promise for important future advances." The academic winners are:

• Maneesh Agrawala, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at the University of California at Berkeley.
• Timothy Barrett, research scientist and adjunct professor at the Center for the Book at the University of Iowa.
• Esther Duflo, Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• Deborah Eisenberg, short story writer and professor of creative writing at the University of Virginia.
• Lin He, assistant professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California at Berkeley.
• Peter Huybers, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University.
• L. Mahadevan, De Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics at Harvard University.
• Heather McHugh, Milliman Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Washington.
• Richard Prum, William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University.
• John A. Rogers, Lee J. Flory-Founder Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• Elyn Saks, Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California.
• Beth Shapiro, assistant professor of biology at Pennsylvania State University.
• Daniel Sigman, Dusenbury Professor of Geological and Geophysical Sciences at Princeton University.
• Mary Tinetti, Gladys Phillips Crofoot Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University.
• Theodore Zoli, visiting lecturer in civil engineering at Princeton University and an adjunct professor of civil engineering and engineering mechanics at Columbia University.