Candidate selection

The MacArthur Fellows Program aims "to identify extraordinarily creative individuals with a track record of excellence in a field of scholarship or area of practice, who demonstrate the ability to impact society in significant and beneficial ways through their pioneering work or the rigor of their contributions."

To be eligible to become a Fellow, nominees must either be residents or citizens of the United States and cannot hold elective office or advanced positions in the government.

Nominations to the program come from a continually changing pool of invited external nominators and are evaluated by an independent Selection Committee. Selectors, which include leaders in the arts, sciences, and humanities, consider each nominee based on the programs' selection criteria, nomination letter(s), evaluations from other experts, and examples of the nominee's work.

The three selection criteria for Fellows include:

• Exceptional creativity
• Promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishments
• Potential for the Fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work

After a thorough, multistep review of the nominees, the Selection Committee makes its recommendations to the president of the MacArthur Foundation and its board of directors. Since 1981, 1,131 people have been chosen as MacArthur Fellows.

Each fellowship includes an award of $800,000, which is paid out in equal quarterly installments over a five-year period. It is considered a "no-strings-attached" award that aims to support people rather than projects.

The winners

This year, five "genius" grant winners were awarded for their work in social and health equity and healthcare.

• Loka Ashwood, a sociologist from the University of Kentucky, is "shedding light on rural identity and culture, and on the ecological, economic, and social challenges facing many rural communities." Ashwood has studied how alliances between government and for-profit corporations have led to loss of and damage to public lands and waterways, which harmed individuals' health and economic fortunes.
• Ruha Benjamin, a transdisciplinary scholar from Princeton University, is "illuminating how advances in science, medicine, and technology reflect and reproduce social inequality." In her 2023 book "People's Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier," Benjamin explored the gap between the people who contribute to new medical technologies and those who actually benefit from them. Using the California Stem Cell Initiative as a case study, Benjamin explained how socially marginalized groups are often used for research purposes but are not guaranteed access to the treatments developed from the research.
• Nicola Dell, a computer and information scientist from Cornell Tech, is "developing technology interventions to address the needs of overlooked populations," including home healthcare workers. Dell has investigated how technology could help improve working conditions for home healthcare workers, as well as patient outcomes. Because essential caregivers are often isolated and under-resourced in healthcare system, Dell's group is exploring the benefits of electronic training resources, technologies to better integrate home health aides with healthcare teams, and computer-mediated peer support programs.
• Dorothy Roberts, a legal scholar and public policy researcher from the University of Pennsylvania, is "exposing racial inequities embedded in social service systems and uplifting the experiences of people caught up in them." In her early work, Roberts focused on Black women's reproductive rights and how they fought for reproductive justice. In 2021, she was featured on the Ted Radio Hour and spoke about how race can impact clinical diagnoses and why this can be dangerous.
• Alice Wong, a writer, editor, and disability justice activist who founded the Disability Visibility Project (DVP), is "increasing the political and cultural visibility of people with disabilities and catalyzing broader understandings of disability." DVP, which includes a podcast, blog, social media, and spaces for community building, focuses on people's perspectives of opioid addiction, sexual abuse, mental health, and more. Wong's own writings have also highlighted the shortcomings of systems of care available for people with disabilities.

 (MacArthur Fellows Program, "About the Program," accessed 10/2; MacArthur Fellows Program, "Overview," accessed 10/2; Beaty, Associated Press, 10/2; Blair, NPR, 10/1)

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