The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Chicago-based grant-making private foundation, has awarded 25 Fellowships in 2008. Except for the international recognition this award entails, the winners (who must be US citizens or residents) also benefit from a prize of $500,000, to be received in 5 yearly installments. And given the current state of the economy, it’s not hard to imagine why many of the candidates dropped the phone when told the news.

Among these 25 chosen artists (8) and scientists (13) we find Hopkins University professors (such as Adam Riess and Peter Pronovost), saxophonists and composers (like 31-year-old Miguel Zenón), instrument makers, geriatricians, biological researchers, physicists, engineers, historians, anthropologists and other notable fields.

Commonly known as “genius grants” (a word frowned upon by the Foundation’s officials), these prizes are awarded for “creative abilities,” according to the current President of the Foundation, Jonathan Fanton, quoted by the Washington Post. But is creativity all these Grants are about? Obviously not, as the candidates’ creativity must be backed up by the potential to contribute to and improve the future.

So how do these Grants work? In order to be one of the chosen few, colleagues from your domain must recommend you as a suitable candidate. Afterwards, a committee is formed, constituting of members from different fields, and they choose the deserving candidate.

Was this year’s edition different than others? In the words of Jonathan Fanton, the winners were “people working on the very edge of discovery and people at the edge of a new synthesis,” as quoted by the New York Times. Will these grants help the winners cross that edge? We all hope so.