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Meet the 2012 MacArthur Fellows

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    Natalia Almada

    Altamura Films

    Mexico City, Mexico

    Age: 37

    Documentary Filmmaker

    capturing complex and nuanced views of Mexican history, politics, and culture in insightful and poetic works that affirm the potency of documentary film as both an art form and a tool for social change.

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    Uta Barth

    Los Angeles, CA

    Age: 54

    Conceptual Photographer

    exploring the nature of vision and the difference between how we see reality and how a camera records it in evocative, abstract compositions that focus attention on the act of looking and the process of perception.

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    Claire Chase

    International Contemporary Ensemble

    Brooklyn, NY

    Age: 34

    Arts Entrepreneur

    forging a new model for the commissioning, recording, and live performance of classical music and opening new avenues of artistic expression for the twenty-first-century musician.

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    Raj Chetty

    Harvard University

    Cambridge, MA

    Age: 33

    Public Economist

    elucidating key policy issues of our time in theoretical and empirical studies that refine our understanding of the impact of public finance on economic activity.

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    Maria Chudnovsky

    Columbia University

    New York, NY

    Age: 35

    Mathematician

    investigating the fundamental principles of graph theory and laying the conceptual foundations for deepening connections between graph theory and other major branches of mathematics, such as linear programming and geometry.

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    Eric Coleman

    University of Colorado School of Medicine

    Denver, CO

    Age: 47

    Geriatrician

    addressing system-wide deficiencies in patient transitions from hospitals to homes and other sites of care and improving the health outcomes of millions of older adults suffering from chronic illness.

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    Junot Díaz

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    Cambridge, MA

    Age: 43

    Fiction Writer

    using raw, vernacular dialogue and spare, unsentimental prose to draw readers into the various and distinct worlds that immigrants must straddle.

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    David Finkel

    Washington Post

    Washington, DC

    Age: 56

    Journalist

    pushing beyond the constraints and conventions of traditional news writing to craft sustained narratives that heighten the reality of military service and sacrifice in the public consciousness.

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    Olivier Guyon

    University of Arizona

    Tucson, AZ

    Age: 36

    Optical Physicist and Astronomer

    designing telescopes and other astronomical instrumentation that play a critical role in the search for Earth-like planets outside our solar system.

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    Elissa Hallem

    University of California, Los Angeles

    Los Angeles, CA

    Age: 34

    Neurobiologist

    exploring the physiology and behavioral consequences of odor detection and chemoreception in invertebrates and identifying interventions that may eventually reduce the scourge of parasitic infections in humans.

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    An-My Lê

    Bard College

    Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

    Age: 52

    Photographer

    approaching the subjects of war and landscape from new perspectives to create images that blur the boundaries between fact and fiction and are rich with layers of meaning.

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    Sarkis Mazmanian

    California Institute of Technology

    Pasadena, CA

    Age: 39

    Medical Microbiologist

    illuminating the complex interplay between microbes and the host immune system and the role certain bacteria may play in the development, or mitigation, of a broad range of human diseases.

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    Dinaw Mengestu

    Washington, DC

    Age: 34

    Writer

    enriching understanding of the little-explored world of the African diaspora in America in tales distilled from the experience of immigrants whose memories are seared by escape from violence in their homelands.

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    Maurice Lim Miller

    Family Independence Initiative

    Oakland, CA

    Age: 66

    Social Services Innovator

    designing programs of mutual support and self-sufficiency that break the cycle of economic dependency for low-income families and build more resilient communities from the ground up.

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    Dylan C. Penningroth

    Northwestern University

    Evanston, IL

    Age: 41

    Historian

    unearthing evidence from widely scattered archives to shed light on shifting concepts of property ownership and kinship among African American slaves and their descendents following emancipation.

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    Terry Plank

    Columbia University

    New York, NY

    Age: 48

    Geochemist

    probing the usually invisible but remarkably powerful thermal and chemical forces deep below the Earth’s crust that drive the motion of tectonic plate collisions.

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    Laura Poitras

    Praxis Films

    New York, NY

    Age: 48

    Documentary Filmmaker

    revealing the consequences of military conflict abroad in illuminating documentaries that portray the lives and intimate experiences of families and communities largely inaccessible to the American media.

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    Nancy Rabalais

    Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium

    Chauvin, LA

    Age: 62

    Marine Ecologist

    documenting the environmental and economic consequences of hypoxic zones in the Gulf of Mexico and informing strategies for restoring the degraded waters of the Gulf and the Mississippi River basin.

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    Benoît Rolland

    Benoît Rolland Studio

    Boston, MA

    Age: 58

    Stringed-Instrument Bow Maker

    experimenting with new designs and materials to create violin, viola, and cello bows that rival the quality of prized nineteenth-century bows and meet the artistic demands of today’s musicians.

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    Daniel Spielman

    Yale University

    New Haven, CT

    Age: 42

    Computer Scientist

    connecting theoretical and applied computing to resolve issues in code optimization theory with implications for how we measure, predict, and regulate our environment and behavior.

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    Melody Swartz

    École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

    Lausanne, Switzerland

    Age: 43

    Bioengineer

    Bioengineer enhancing understanding of the dynamic processes of tissue vascularization and immune responses to tumor invasion using a large toolbox of concepts and methods from biophysics, cell culture, molecular genetics, engineering, and immunology.

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    Chris Thile

    New York, NY

    Age: 31

    Mandolinist and Composer

    creating a new musical aesthetic and a distinctly American canon for the mandolin through a lyrical fusion of traditional bluegrass orchestrations with a range of styles and genres.

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    Benjamin Warf

    Boston Children's Hospital

    Boston, MA

    Age: 54

    Pediatric Neurosurgeon

    revolutionizing treatment of hydrocephalus and other intra-cranial diseases in very young children and advancing standards of and access to health care in both the developed and poorest regions of the world.

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Related Video

October 2, 2012 - Video
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Journalist David Finkel, 2012 MacArthur Fellow

Journalist David Finkel was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2012. The Fellowship is a $500,000, no-strings-attached grant for individuals who have shown exceptional creativity in their work and the promise to do more. Learn more ... Watch Video
MacArthur Fellows
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