page_title: MacArthur Fellows Program
section_title: 2002
hierarchical_section_title: MacArthur Fellows Program / Recipients / 2002
caption_attribution_description: English: Colson Whitehead at the 2009 Texas Book Festival, Austin, Texas, United States.
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: Danielle Allen, classicist and political scientist
  Bonnie Bassler, molecular biologist
  Ann M. Blair, intellectual historian
  Katherine Boo, journalist
  Paul Ginsparg, physicist
  David B. Goldstein, energy conservation specialist
  Karen Hesse, writer
  Janine Jagger, epidemiologist
  Daniel Jurafsky, computer scientist and linguist
  Toba Khedoori, artist
  Liz Lerman, choreographer
  George E. Lewis, trombonist
  Liza Lou, artist
  Edgar Meyer, bassist and composer
  Jack Miles, writer and Biblical scholar
  Erik Mueggler, anthropologist and ethnographer
  Sendhil Mullainathan, economist
  Stanley Nelson, documentary filmmaker
  Lee Ann Newsom, paleoethnobotanist
  Daniela L. Rus, computer scientist
  Charles C. Steidel, astronomer
  Brian Tucker, seismologist
  Camilo José Vergara, photographer
  Paul Wennberg, atmospheric chemist
  Colson Whitehead, writer
caption: Colson Whitehead
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