A Caltech astrophysicist and an interdisciplinary artist who graduated from UCLA and the California Institute of the Arts were among the 22 MacArthur Fellows announced Wednesday.

Kareem El-Badry, 31, an assistant professor of astronomy at Caltech, and Gala Porras-Kim, 40, currently a visiting critic in sculpture at Yale School of Art, were both named recipients of the coveted fellowships.

Awarded by the MacArthur Foundation, MacArthur Fellows each receive an $800,000, no-strings-attached award — commonly dubbed a “genius grant.” The grants are awarded to individuals “who show exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future.”

The fellowships are designed to “provide recipients with the flexibility to pursue their own artistic, intellectual, and professi

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