By MIKE THOMAS Staff Reporter/mthomas@suntimes.com October 1, 2012 5:08PM

Melody Swartz was named a MacArthur Foundation fellow. | Courtesy of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

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Updated: October 2, 2012 2:18AM

When Melody Swartz got word that shed been chosen to receive a coveted MacArthur Fellows Program award (known more commonly as a genius grant), the Switzerland-based bioengineering professor and Glen Ellyn native was in the middle of a grocery store with 80s music blaring from loudspeakers overhead.

Horrified at what the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation representative might think of the cheesy tunes streaming through her cell phone, she dropped her shopping basket and rushed to find a quiet corner.

I was completely flabbergasted, Swartz said via email. It came completely out of the blue.

Like the rest of this years 23 awardees which include such disparate pioneers as Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Junot Diaz, pediatric neurosurgeon Benjamin Warf and stringed-instrument bow maker Benoit Rolland Swartz, 43, will receive a total of $500,000 paid out quarterly over five years.

Since 1981, with the help of anonymous, handpicked nominators, the MacArthur Foundation has doled out hundreds of grants and many millions of dollars to artists and entrepreneurs in a variety of disciplines.

In a written summary of her achievements, the MacArthur Foundation notes that Swartzs research has important implications not only for normal tissue development and maintenance but also for cancer biology.

Read more here:
MacArthur Foundation bestows 23 ‘genius grants’