Meet Two MacArthur 'Genius Grant' Scientists

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2019

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We meet two scientists working on opposite sides of the world, both thinking creatively about rising sea levels and our changing oceans. Andrea Dutton, a geologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Stacy Jupiter, a marine biologist and Melanesia Director with the Wildlife Conservation Society, were awarded MacArthur Fellowships this fall.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:04.6	Manny Sifai here with Shortwave's reporter Emily Kwong.
0:08.5	What do you got for us today, Kwong?
0:09.7	I have a story about one of the most exciting phone calls you can receive as a scientist,
0:15.1	the MacArthur Fellowship.
0:16.1	Oh, the genius grants.
0:17.9	Yes.
0:18.9	At least that's the unofficial name.
0:20.7	So every year, the MacArthur Foundation, quick disclosure, one of NPR's funders.
0:24.7	Thanks, yo.
0:25.8	Jesus people on the cutting edge of different disciplines and gives them each a $625,000 gift
0:32.4	that they can spend, however they want.
0:34.7	When Andrea Dutton, a geologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison got the call last month,
0:40.4	she nearly ignored it.
0:41.8	She thought it was a robo call.
0:43.3	And instead, it was like a half a million dollars.
0:45.8	Exactly.
0:46.6	That is not how they go for me, generally.
0:49.2	Maybe one day you'll get a call like this.
0:51.6	But for Andrea...
0:52.8	They asked me if I'd ever heard of the award.
0:54.7	I said, oh, yes.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.