Class of 2015 – MacArthur Foundation | Hacker News Reader

Class of 2015 – MacArthur Foundation

macfound.org

32 pointsjaphyr11 comments

I'm surprised at how many Ivy League/top-tier college recipients there are on the list. On the one hand, it makes sense as these people are at the forefront of their fields and therefore should be at the best institutions. On the other, I would expect that they would get enough funding from their universities and that the grant might serve a maverick/independent candidate better. Do half of the grants usually go to top-tier institutional researchers and artists?

Top researchers look for institutions where their work will get the best support and exposure, and top institutions look to bring together the best researchers. As a result, much of the most exciting new research is concentrated at the top, and just as importantly in this context, the work at those institutions has generally better marketing/reach, so is more likely to be familiar to folks in charge of picking MacArthur fellows.

To answer your question: yes, a substantial proportion of MacArthur fellows every year are affiliated with places like (from this year) Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Princeton, UChicago, Cornell, Columbia, etc.

Found the Chicago grad...

Actually, it looks like he's a Harvard guy.

Universities don't provide funding to academic stars. They provide prestige, access to good colleagues and students, that sort of thing. The money flows in the other direction.

The award is based on excellence and not on need for funds.

Past years are available at wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacArthur_Fellows_Program

In particular, go down to the bottom for the outbound links to the macfound.org summary lists for each year.

Definitely interesting to browse: Stephen Wolfram (1981). Jared Diamond (1985). David Donoho (1991). DFW (1997). Tim B-L (1998). David Simon (2010). One forgets.

Didn't notice anything too amazing or groundbreaking amongst the recipients' work. Looks like these awards have been coopted by those who put politics above all else.

You know a lot about modern dance choreography and tap?

OTOH, their earlier foray into puppeteers (Bruce Schwartz, 1988) did not go as well as might be hoped. He now operates a yoga studio in Pasadena (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Schwartz). Hopefully Basil Twist (2015) will redeem the profession.

Which 24 people would you have chosen?

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