Nicole King, 2004 Pew Scholar, has been awarded the famous MacArthur Foundation "genius" Fellow award. An exclusive club of creative and original thinkers given $500,000 with "no strings attached" in support of people, not projects. 25 MacArthur Fellows were chosen on September 20th, 2005.

Dr. King, a molecular biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, seeks to reconstruct the emergence of multicellular organisms from unicellular life.

The MacArthur Fellows Program awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction. In keeping with this purpose, the Foundation awards fellowships directly to individuals rather than through institutions. Recipients may be writers, scientists, artists, social scientists, humanists, teachers, entrepreneurs, or those in other fields, with or without institutional affiliations. They may use their fellowship to advance their expertise, engage in bold new work, or, if they wish, to change fields or alter the direction of their careers.

For more information, see: http://www.macfound.org/programs/fel/fellows/king_nicole.htm

Pew Scholars Homepage: www.pewscholars.com