24 new MacArthur Fellows announced

CHICAGO, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- A spider silk biologist, an inventor and a master vocalist are among 24 people selected to receive $500,000 as MacArthur Fellows, the Chicago foundation said.

Officials with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation released the list of 2007 fellows Tuesday. Recipients were notified by telephone after being anonymously nominated.

This year's class includes Cheryl Hayashi, from the University of California-Riverside, whose study has focused on spider silks; Saul Griffith, who helped found Squid Labs in Emeryville, Calif., and who has been an innovator in industrial design and science education, and Dawn Upshaw of Bronxville, N.Y., who was noted for her mastery of vocal technique in numerous languages and singing styles.

The $500,000 grants are given to the fellows without conditions. Some 756 people have been selected MacArthur Fellow since the program began in 1981.

The 2007 MacArthur Fellows, hometown and specialty: Deborah Bial, New York; education strategist; Peter Cole, Jerusalem, writer; Lisa Cooper, Baltimore, physician; Ruth DeFries, College Park, Md.; environmental geographer; Mercedes Doretti, New York; forensic anthropologist; Stuart Dybek, Evanston, Ill.; writer; Marc Edwards, Blacksburg, Va., civil engineer; Michael Elowitz, Pasadena, Calif., molecular biologist;

Saul Griffith, Emeryville, Calif., inventor; Sven Haakanson, Kodiak, Alaska, language specialist; Corey Harris, Charlottesville, Va., blue musician; Cheryl Hayashi, Riverside, Calif., biologist; My Hang Huynh, Los Alamos, N.M., chemist; Claire Kremen, Berkeley, Calif., conservation biologist; Whitfield, Lovell, New York, artist; Yoky Matsuoka, Seattle, neuoroboticist;

Lynn Nortage, New York, playwright; Mark Roth, Seattle, biomedical researcher; Paul Rothemund, Pasadena, Calif., research technologist; Jay Rubenstein, Knoxville, Tenn., medieval historian; Jonathan Shay, Boston, clinical psychiatrist; Joan Snyder, New York, painter; Dawn Upshaw, Bronxville, N.Y., singer; and Shen Wei, New York, dance director.

(Editors: this story was accidentally published in advance of a midnight embargo)