Newsmakers

Caltech professor JOHN DABIRI ’01 was selected in September to receive a $500,000, no-strings-attached MacArthur Fellow­ship — popularly known as a “genius grant.” Dabiri, who majored in mechan­i­cal and aerospace engineering, draws inspiration from unusual sources such as jellyfish, whose propulsion mechanism has influenced designs for energy-efficient underwater vehicles and wind-power turbines as well as medical research on blood flow. At age 30, Dabiri is the youngest of this year’s 23 MacArthur Fellows.  

LOCOMOTIVES   Poet GALWAY KINNELL ’48, whose books include the Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning Selected Poems , received the $100,000 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets for “proven mastery in the art of poetry.” ... JOHN KOETHE ’67 ’s poetry collection Ninety-fifth Street won the $25,000 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy for the most outstanding book of poetry published the previous year. ... KENNETH STANDING *55 and a colleague at Canada’s University of Mani­toba, Werner Ens, won one of Canada’s largest innovation prizes, the $100,000 Encana Principal Award from the Ernest C. Manning Awards Founda­tion, for their advancements in technologies to study proteins. ... President Obama has nominated CAITLIN HALLIGAN ’88 for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. ... EUGENE JARECKI ’91 is one of the directors of the new documentary film Freakonomics , which was released in theaters Oct. 1. ... Prince­ton fencing alumni JIM ADAMS ’61 and DON ANTHONY ’79 won silver medals at the World Veteran Fencing Champion­ships in Porec, Croatia, Sept. 29–Oct. 3. ... J. DOUGLAS CARROLL *63 received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 75th anniversary conference of the Psychometric Society in July.