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MacArthur Foundation Names Monetary Prize Winners

Twenty-five lucky people will be receiving a total of $12.5 million in grants from the MacArthur Foundation, with approximately $500,000 to be given to each recipient. The monies are to be disbursed to the winners over the next five years, and are selected according to ?creativity, originality, and potential to make important contributions in the future.? A full list of John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation winners can be found on the website of the foundation itself.

Kevin Eggan, a stem-cell researcher at Harvard University, is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation prize this year, and says ?The fact that the MacArthur Foundation, an organization whose name you hear every day on National Public Radio, is willing to support and stand behind this (stem cell) research - that for me is the most wonderful, amazing thing. This is one more reason to believe that the tide is turning in support of this important research.?

Another winner was ?a master of the improvisational jazz violin,? Regina Carter. According to the MacArthur Foundation, ?On recordings such as Motor City Moments in 2000, where she overlays swing with a soulful sound, and Freefall in 2001, a collaboration with jazz legend Kenny Barron, Carter taps into a broad musical vocabulary to weave new sound tapestries.? The MacArthur Foundation has been handing out these grants since 1981.