Meet The MA Geniuses Named 2022 MacArthur Fellows

CAMBRIDGE, MA — The MacArthur Foundation Wednesday unveiled its roster of 2022 MacArthur Fellows, who hail from a variety of fields and parts of the nation — including three women from Massachusetts.

Each of the 25 MacArthur Fellows receives an $800,000 "genius grant" — a no-strings-attached award doled out over five years that allows each fellow to continue pursuing their work.

"Although nominees are reviewed for their achievements, the fellowship is not a lifetime achievement award, but rather an investment in a person's originality, insight, and potential," the foundation said. "Indeed, the purpose of the MacArthur Fellows Program is to enable recipients to exercise their own creative instincts for the benefit of human society."

So what will the three Massachusetts MacArthur Fellows be working on? Here are details about each one, according to the MacArthur Foundation:

Danna Freedman, 41

A synthetic inorganic chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge who creates "novel molecular materials with unique properties directly relevant to quantum information science."

"In a tablet of aspirin, every molecule is precisely identical — every chemical bond is the same length and angle every single time. The unmatched control inherent in synthetic chemistry opens doors to other fields and discoveries beyond chemistry. We can think about areas where this precision and tunability can transform other fields and harness the attributes of synthetic chemistry in new directions. By designing and creating chemical systems, we can uncover new science in areas ranging from quantum information science to magnetism," she said.

Loretta Ross, 69

Ross is an associate professor at Smith College in Northampton, and an advocate for reproductive justice and human rights.

"Not letting success go to my head or failure go to my heart is one of the timeless lessons I hope my life’s journey offers others. What I’ve gone through has been the crucible to prepare me for future challenges. It’s not that I’m never scared; I’ve just learned never to let my fears stop me from becoming more than what’s happened to me. Activism has been the art of making my life matter," she said.

Melanie Matchett Wood, 41

Wood is a mathematician at Harvard University in Cambridge who specializes in number theory and algebraic geometry.

"Numbers and their properties are one of the most ancient and universal interests of humanity. Yet numbers hold more secrets that we are still working to reveal. Unlocking these mysteries requires new perspectives and often happens when we discover surprising connections between different parts of mathematics," she said.

See the full list of 2022 MacArthur Fellows here.