In 1994, Coleman earned a MacArthur Genius award, and has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

NPR: Coleman's 'Grammar' Proves Prize-Worthy

She is also a recent recipient of the MacArthur Genius Award.

WHITEHOUSE: THE WHITE HOUSE

Belcher, who came to MIT in 2002, won a MacArthur "genius" award in 2004 and works out of an office that is littered with more matter, both organic and inorganic, than any living thing could create order from.

FORBES: Breakthroughs

And we've done this, and this is why I got that award (the MacArthur Foundation "genius grant") was that we were the first group to identify an organism that comes from humans -- not dairy products -- that has demonstrable health benefits in both mice and in human cells, and we hope to someday give this to humans clinically to treat various indications.

CNN: Probing the mysteries of probiotics

It's good for you, says Robert Hass, Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997, two-time winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and winner in 1984 of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant.

FORBES: Why not a sonnet?

She was named a 2005 MacArthur Fellow, the first conductor ever to receive the award.

NPR: Mahler's Fifth Symphony: The Everest of Music

He's won the prestigious Macarthur Genius Grant and this year, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

NPR: Ornette Coleman on Sound Innovations

Among this year's MacArthur fellowships sometimes called the "genius grant" is a half-million dollar award to a psychiatrist who helps heal combat veterans with post traumatic stress disorder by talking about the mythological Greek warriors Achilles and Odysseus.

NPR: Psychiatrist Who Counsels Vets Wins Genius Grant