Pictures: Maryland’s MacArthur winners

They’re known as the “genius grants,” and they’re one of the most lucrative prizes awarded in American humanities. Administered by the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the MacArthur Fellows Programs is a five-year series of grants, totalling $500,000, that the recipients can use in whatever ways they want. Some 20 Marylanders have been named MacArthur Fellows since the program began in 1981. Her’s a look at some of them.