Carol Padden, UC San Diego	Yiyun Li, UC Davis
Emmanuel Saez, UC Berkeley	Dawn Song, UC Berkeley

Four University of California faculty members were named MacArthur Fellows today (Sept. 28) by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. They are among 23 diverse fellows to receive the $500,000 "genius" awards recognizing their creativity, originality and potential to make important contributions in the future.

UC's recipients include:
Yiyun Li, assistant professor of English at UC Davis and fiction writer. Her works include the short story collections "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" (2005) and "Gold Boy, Emerald Girl: Stories" (2010) and the novel "The Vagrants" (2009). She has taught at UC Davis since 2008. (UC Davis release)

Carol Padden, linguist and professor of communication at UC San Diego. Her research focuses on the structure and evolution of sign languages — how they differ from spoken language and from each other — and on the specific social implications of signed communication. Padden earned her Ph.D. at UC San Diego and also is associate dean for the Division of Social Sciences. (UC San Diego release) 

Emmanuel Saez, E. Morris Cox Professor of Economics and director of the Center for Equitable Growth, UC Berkeley. Saez's work has focused most notably on the shifts in U.S. income distribution over the last century. His analyses and insights are enhancing public understanding of the relationship between income and tax policy. (UC Berkeley release)

Dawn Song, assistant professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley. Song is being recognized for her innovative work on protecting computer systems from malicious software, or malware. She applies rigorous theoretical methods to understand the interactions of software, hardware and networks that make computer systems vulnerable to attack or interference. (UC Berkeley release)

Visit the MacArthur Foundation website for more information on the class of 2010 and the MacArthur Fellows program.

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