page_title: MacArthur Fellows Program
section_title: 1998
hierarchical_section_title: MacArthur Fellows Program / Recipients / 1998
caption_attribution_description: English: Tim Berners-Lee talking at the World Wide Web Foundation press conference at the Newseum.
context_page_description: The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 individuals, working in any field, who have shown "extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction" and are citizens or residents of the United States.
  According to the foundation's website, "the fellowship is not a reward for past accomplishment, but rather an investment in a person's originality, insight, and potential". The current prize is $625,000 paid over five years in quarterly installments. This figure was increased from $500,000 in 2013 with the release of a review of the MacArthur Fellows Program. Since 1981, 942 people have been named MacArthur Fellows, ranging in age from 18 to 82. The award has been called "one of the most significant awards that is truly 'no strings attached'".
  The program does not accept applications.
context_section_description: Janine Antoni, artist
  Ida Applebroog, artist
  Ellen Barry, attorney and human rights activist
  Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web
  Linda Bierds, poet
  Bernadette Brooten, historian
  John Carlstrom, astrophysicist
  Mike Davis, historian
  Nancy Folbre, economist
  Avner Greif, economist
  Kun-Liang Guan, biochemist
  Gary Hill, artist
  Edward Hirsch, poet, essayist
  Ayesha Jalal, historian
  Charles R. Johnson, writer
  Leah Krubitzer, neuroscientist
  Stewart Kwoh, human rights activist
  Charles Lewis, journalist
  William W. McDonald, rancher and conservationist
  Peter N. Miller, historian
  Don Mitchell, cultural geographer
  Rebecca Nelson, plant pathologist
  Elinor Ochs, linguistic anthropologist
  Ishmael Reed, poet, essayist, novelist
  Benjamin D. Santer, atmospheric scientist
  Karl Sims, computer scientist and artist
  Dorothy Thomas, human rights activist
  Leonard Zeskind, human rights activist
  Mary Zimmerman, playwright
caption: Tim Berners-Lee
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