 Marine biologist Kelly Benoit-Bird, one of 23 MacArthur Fellows. Courtesy John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. |
The 23 newest recently received some pretty exciting news: As part of the 2010 class, they each won a $500,000 no-strings-attached five-year grant for showing 鈥渆xceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future." The lucky winners, which the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced yesterday, include a sculptor, a journalist-turned-television writer, a type designer and鈥攐ur focuses in this group鈥攁 marine biologist who listens to sea animals and an entomologist who studies honeybees.
First, . The 34-year-old Oregon State University professor is a good listener. And lucky her, she gets to hear what few others do: marine creatures鈥攆rom the smallest zooplankton to some of the largest mammals鈥攂elow the ocean鈥檚 surface. 鈥淚鈥檓 interested in how they make a living,鈥 she says, 鈥渉ow they find their food while they try to avoid becoming someone else鈥檚 dinner.鈥
Her work focuses on using technology like SONAR to learn how animals up and down the food web behave as both predator and prey. Her end goal is to 鈥渦nravel the behavior components鈥 of this complex marine ecosystem and maybe, learn a thing or two from the sounds these animals generate. She says the MacArthur grant allows her to take risks with her work that she might have been otherwise forced to avoid.
hopes to use her money to fund big-picture visions she has about how to help honeybees, her love since age 18. 鈥淏ees are huge pollinators,鈥 says the 55-year-old University of Minnesota professor. 鈥淭hey impact our food quality and food security in major ways.鈥 Spivak鈥檚 aim is to keep bees healthy鈥攁 much harder task lately given the triple threat of fewer available flowers, more pesticides and bee diseases.
She鈥檚 fighting back by creating disease-resistant honeybee strains based on findings from hygienic behavior research (the bees essentially kick out infected pupae before they鈥檙e born to prevent infecting the entire hive). 鈥淲e鈥檙e breeding bees that can defend themselves against disease and parasites,鈥 Spivak says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e giving bees a way to get back on their own six feet.鈥
For more about Spivak, Benoit-Bird, or any of the other Fellows, visit