The only MacArthur we've ever encountered is the last BART stop to change from the Pittsburg/Bay Point and Richmond lines! Four folks in the Bay Area, though, have slightly different associations with the word now that they've been awarded MacArthur genius grants of half a million dollars apiece.

Three of our local winners are from Cal and one is from Stanford. From Cal, Lu Chen is a neuroscientist researching memory. Nicole King studies unicellular evolution, Michael Manga is a geophysicist studying Bay Area earthquakes, and from Stanford, Pehr Harbury is in drug bioengineering. The grant recipients can use the money for whatever they like. The other 21 winners this year include author Jonathan Lethem, an ergonomic violinmaker, a fisherman, a man who's been working to reduce auto emissions, and a rare book restorer.

There was a hilarious article in the NY Times from a winner from last year, whose daughter takes great glee in defeating him at Candyland now ("I thought you were a genius, Daddy,"), and other Bay Area winners from last year (who included a local high school debate teacher) say they're all doing very well.