Koller Linda Cicero

Usually when the phone rings, it means someone wants money. But for Stanford scientists Daphne Koller and Julie Theriot, the September wake-up calls brought much better news. Koller, an associate professor of computer science, and Theriot, an assistant professor of biochemistry, microbiology and immunology at the School of Medicine, were among 23 individuals honored this year with John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur fellowships—often referred to as “genius” awards. Recipients receive $500,000 grants that they can use over five years, any way they want.

Koller, who studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before receiving her doctorate from Stanford in 1993, specializes in algorithms and computational models that analyze complex information. Recently, her work helped unpack the yeast genome, teasing out useful information from staggering amounts of gene-expression data.

Theriot Courtesy Julie Theriot

Theriot combines her knowledge of biology with physics and math to understand how cells and the organelles within them move. Her work has helped unravel some of the mysteries of bacterial infection, particularly by the food-borne germs Shigella, which causes dysentery, and Listeria, which can be particularly damaging to pregnant women, newborns and people with weakened immune systems.

The awards bring to 22 the number of Stanford MacArthur winners. Other recipients of this year’s fellowships include a farmer, a poet, a ragtime pianist and a Bay Area high school teacher.