Academics Win MacArthur 'Genius' Fellowships

Faculty members are among the fortunate winners of this year's “genius” fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The no-strings fellowships are awarded to “individuals who show exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future.” The winners receive $625,000 over five years, and people cannot apply for the fellowship -- the foundation simply makes its selections.

This year's winners from academe are:

• Patrick Awuah, founder and president of Ashesi University College, in Ghana.
• Kartik Chandran, associate professor of earth and environmental engineering at Columbia University.
• Matthew Desmond, associate professor of sociology and social studies at Harvard University.
• William Dichtel, associate professor of chemistry at Cornell University.
• LaToya Ruby Frazier, assistant professor of photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
• Ben Lerner, professor of English at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.
• Dimitri Nakassis, associate professor of classics at the University of Toronto.
• John Novembre, associate professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago.
• Christopher Ré, assistant professor of computer science at Stanford University.
• Marina Rustow, professor of Near Eastern studies and history at Princeton University.
• Beth Stevens, assistant professor of neurology at Harvard University Medical School.
• Heidi Williams, assistant professor of economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• Peidong Yang, S. K. and Angela Chan Distinguished Professor of Energy at the University of California at Berkeley.