Author, tap dancer, sociologist among ‘genius grant’ winners

The winners, known as MacArthur Fellows and who did not apply for the award, received calls from the selection committee describing their work and congratulating them on their award – which consists of $625,000 (£412,635) per person paid over five years. The list also includes an eclectic mix of scientists, academics, and activists, true to the MacArthur’s history of honoring excellence across disciplines. An educator and entrepreneur who founded a university in Ghana that teaches ethical principles and skills needed in contemporary Africa.Kartik Chandran, 41, New York. Environmental health advocate and co-founder of Health Care Without Harm who has worked to reduce the amount of pollutants and hazardous waste produced and released into the environment by American hospitals.Matthew Desmond, 35, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Matthew Desmond, 35, Cambridge, Mass.: “Urban sociologist revealing the impact of eviction on poor families and the role of housing policy in sustaining poverty and racial inequality in large American cities”. A Cornell University chemist working to bring a new class of nanostructured materials out of laboratories and into daily use.Michelle Dorrance, 36, New York.

Michelle Dorrance, 36, New York: “Tap dancer and choreographer reinvigorating a uniquely American dance form in works that combine the musicality of tap with the choreographic intricacies of contemporary dance”.

Mimi Lien, 39, a set designer, who “is revitalizing the visual language of theater and enhancing the performance experience for theater-makers and viewers alike”.

Latoya Ruby Frazier, the photographer and video artist from Chicago, focuses her work on Braddock, Pennsylvania, her hometown, and “deals with the intersection of the steel industry, environmental pollution, and the healthcare crisis”.

Dimitri Nakassis, 40, a classicist at the University of Toronto whose “multifaceted approach to the study of Bronze Age Greece is redefining the methodologies and frameworks of the field, and his nuanced picture of political authority and modes of economic exchange in Mycenaean Greece is illuminating the prehistoric underpinnings of Western civilization”.

Many of this year’s winners have been covered by NPR at a few point in their careers – most recently, playwright, composer and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda was the topic of discussion last week on All Songs Considered.

One of the winners, Alex Truesdell, runs the Adaptive Design Association, a company creating custom furniture and other tools to help children with disabilities “participate actively in their homes, schools, and communities”. A neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School, Stevens’ research has triggered a major shift in thinking about neuron communication in the health brain and the origins of adult neurological diseases.Lorenz Studer, 49, New York.

Basil Twist, 46, a puppetry artist and director in New York City whose theatrical works “explore the boundaries between the animate and inanimate, the abstract and the figurative”.

Heidi Williams, an economist studying “technological change in health care”.

The inorganic chemist Peidong Yang, 44, of the University of California, Berkeley, whose “advances in the science of nanomaterials are opening new horizons for tackling the global challenge of clean, renewable energy sources”.