Scientists Angela Belcher, Naomi Ehrich Leonard, and Julie Theriot have something in common. They are among the 23 people the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation named in September as this year’s MacArthur fellows in recognition of their originality, creativity, and potential. Each will receive an unrestricted grant of $500 000 over the next five years.
Belcher, who specializes in nanotechnology, focuses on how to apply natural processes for making materials to the design of new, hybrid organic–inorganic magnetic and electronic nanoscale devices. Her research, says the foundation, “opens new avenues for controlling inorganic chemical reactions.” When she was a graduate student, for instance, she showed how natural proteins in abalone help create hard shells from calcium carbonate—the main ingredient of chalk. She subsequently modified peptides that bind with semiconductor alloys like gallium arsenide.
In her most recent work, Belcher, John Chipman Career Development Associate Professor of Materials...
