The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation named 23 new MacArthur Fellows for 2010 on September 28th. Among the winners of these “genius grants” was historian and AHA member Annette Gordon-Reed, who also won the Pulitzer Prize and received a Guggenheim fellowship in 2009. Gordon-Reed has authored definitive works on the relationship between President Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. She is on the faculty of Harvard Law School, with joint appointments as Professor of History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. You can see a video interview and description of her research on the MacArthur Foundation web site.

MacArthur Fellows are selected for their creativity, originality, and potential to make important contributions in the future. The recipients each receive $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years. MacArthur Fellowships come without stipulations and reporting requirements and offer fellows unprecedented freedom and opportunity to reflect, create, and explore. “This group of fellows, along with the more than 800 who have come before, reflects the tremendous breadth of creativity among us,” said MacArthur President Robert Gallucci. “They are explorers and risk takers, contributing to their fields and to society in innovative, impactful ways. They provide us all with inspiration and hope for the future.”

A complete roster of this year’s 23 fellows can be found here.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.