A bioengineer is developing new tissue-engineering methods and synthetic regenerative technologies for cells. A mathematician brings technical brilliance and insight to formerly intractable problems. A deep-sea explorer hopes to arrest and reverse the worldwide trend of marine ecosystem degradation. A cosmologist is piecing together the early history of the universe.

The originality, creativity, and potential of these four people were recognized when they were named 2006 MacArthur fellows. Linda Griffith, Terence Tao, Edith Widder, and Matias Zaldarriaga were among 25 people so honored in September by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The designation carries an unrestricted grant of $500 000 over the next five years.

Griffith, a professor in the departments of biological engineering and mechanical engineering at MIT, where she is also director of the Biotechnology Process Engineering Center, is discovering ways to use biomedical engineering and its applications for diagnosing disease and regenerating damaged...

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