Georgetown Dean to Lead Philanthropic MacArthur Foundation

The foundation -- perhaps best known for its annual Fellows Program (often called "genius grants," worth $500,000 each and given with no strings for original and groundbreaking work in the arts and sciences) -- makes about 500 awards a year in dozens of countries, in areas ranging from the arts and media to global security to juvenile justice reform. The foundation made a $50 million grant last year to preserve biodiversity in eight "hot spots" from the northern Andes mountains in Latin America to Madagascar off Africa's southeastern coast. It also gave $2 million to the East Asia Institute in South Korea as part of a regional security program.