Granted

This year’s class of MacArthur fellows, announced Sept. 22, includes four Princeton alumni (clockwise from top): JOSÉ QUIÑONEZ *98, SUBHASH KHOT *03, BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS ’06, and JULIA WOLFE *12. The so-called “genius grants” come with a no-strings-attached $625,000 award.

Quiñonez facilitates lending circles in low-income communities, enabling small groups of people without access to credit to pool their resources and lend money to one another. His goal for the grant is to help “hardworking families realize their true economic potential.” Jacobs-Jenkins, a playwright who uses satire to explore issues of race, family, class, and identity, hopes the award will mean more time to write.

Composer Wolfe, known for her large-scale, modern orchestral productions, hopes the grant will provide “time and space to construct a new dream project,” though she can’t predict what it will be. And Khot, a mathematician and New York University professor who primarily ponders the limits of computing, has yet to calculate what he’ll do with the award.

READ MORE about Princeton's 2016 MacArthur fellows