MacArthur Salutes 25 Geniuses

Recipients of the $500,000 grant include a web page-ranking algorithm creator along with twenty-four other creative minds.

Those in the world of work have always wondered why the people who hold meetings seem to be rewarded more richly than those who actually do the work. The MacArthur Foundation turns the tables and enriches the creative types whose accomplishments outweigh the meetings.

The Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation called 25 people to let them know a five-year, $500,000 grant was theirs. Those recipients, now MacArthur Fellows, can do what they wish with the money, “no strings attached,” the organization said in a statement.

707 people have become MacArthur Fellows since the program’s inception in 1981. They have ranged from 18 to 82 in age. The Foundation culls through nominations selected by an anonymous group of 100 nominators. Grant recipients range from 20 to 25 in number for a given year.

The recipients’ fields run the gamut from cutting edge sciences like neurobiology and molecular biology, to classical considerations like painting and sculpture. Cornell’s Jon Kleinberg, a professor of computer science known as the “Rebel King,” created the HITS algorithm. HITS works similar to Google’s vaunted PageRank, but uses two values instead of one for ranking web sites.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.