MacArthur Fellowships Award $800,000 Each to 20 Scholars and Artists

The MacArthur Foundation has named 20 new fellows, each receiving an $800,000, no-strings-attached grant. The annual awards go to scholars, scientists and artists chosen for their creativity and promise, and this year's class spans fields from economic history to public art.

Among the winners is Ellora Derenoncourt, a labor economist and economic historian whose research examines wage gaps between races. A historian of inequality, Derenoncourt belongs to a cohort the philanthropic group rewards precisely because the work resists easy categorization: the fellowship money carries no obligations, and recipients may spend it however they choose.

The artist roster includes Christine Sun Kim and Chip Thomas. Thomas works as a public artist, while Kim, whose practice has gained wide visibility in contemporary art, joins a class that also features Song Lin, an organic chemist; Holly Jean Buck, a sociologist and energy policy researcher; and Kate Spradley, a forensic anthropologist.

A saxophonist is also among the 2025 fellows — one whose live performances, unusually, include a chef on stage. That pairing captures the range of disciplines the foundation sweeps into a single annual announcement: music, chemistry, anthropology, economics and visual art, recognized side by side.

The grants total $16 million across the 20 fellows. Each winner receives the $800,000 outright, a structure the foundation has long framed as a bet on individuals rather than on specific projects. Recipients do not apply for the fellowship; nominees are evaluated in secret, and winners typically learn of the honor only when the foundation calls.

Derenoncourt's inclusion points to the foundation's continued investment in scholars of racial economic disparity. Her work as a labor economist and economic historian tracks how gaps in wages between races have formed and persisted, placing her among the researchers shaping current debates over inequality.

Spradley's forensic anthropology and Buck's research at the intersection of sociology and energy policy extend the cohort's reach into science and public affairs. Lin's chemistry rounds out a group in which laboratory researchers outnumber, only narrowly, the artists and performers.

For the arts world, the fellowships for Kim and Thomas signal recognition of practices rooted in public and conceptual engagement. Thomas's designation as a public artist distinguishes work made for communities rather than for the gallery wall, and Kim's visual art has made her one of the most closely watched figures in her generation.

The MacArthur Fellowships, often called "genius grants," have since their inception honored individuals across disciplines with unrestricted funding. The 2025 class continues that pattern: 20 people, $800,000 apiece, and complete freedom in how to use it.

The foundation will rely on the same quiet nomination process next year, meaning the next cohort of artists and scholars is already being weighed — unaware — by judges they will never meet.