Playwright Annie Baker (Tisch ’03), a former Tisch instructor, and immunologist Gabriel Victora (GSAS ’11) have been named 2017 MacArthur Fellows.
Annie Baker, a 2003 graduate of the Department of Dramatic Writing in the Tisch School of the Arts and former instructor at Tisch, and Gabriel Victora, who received a Ph.D. in pathology from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 2011, have been named 2017 MacArthur Fellows by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. This year’s 24 MacArthur fellows receive the foundation’s grants, which total $625,000 over a five-year period, to pursue intellectual, social, and artistic endeavors. The foundation puts no restrictions on how the money can be spent, and imposes no obligation for reporting of activities.
“These new MacArthur Fellows bring their exceptional creativity to diverse people, places, and social challenges,” says Cecilia Conrad, managing director, MacArthur Fellows Program. “Their work gives us reason for optimism and inspires us all."
Baker is a playwright who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize and 2013 Obie Award for The Flick, which chronicles the efforts of three ushers to maintain a rundown Worchester, Massachusetts, movie theatre. Her other works include Circle Mirror Transformation (2009), The Aliens (2010), Uncle Vanya (2012 adaptation), John (2015), and The Antipodes (2017). These works have been produced at Soho Repertory, Signature Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Royal Court, National Theatre, and regional theaters across the globe.
Victora, who focuses on microbiology, virology, and immunology, was a Fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2012-2016 and is currently Laurie and Peter Grauer Assistant Professor and head of the Laboratory of Lymphocyte Dynamics at Rockefeller University. His articles have been published in scientific journals including Science, Nature, Cell, Immunity, and Nature Immunology, among others.