What Would You Do with a Genius Grant?

[markobri]

This week, the MacArthur Foundation announced the class of 2011 MacArthur Fellows.  Among them is Melanie Sanford, a chemist at the University of Michigan and an ACS Member.   As a MacArthur fellow, Melanie was awarded a Genius Grant; a $500k no-strings-attached grant to support her activities over the next five years.

Watch this short video to learn more about Melanie's research and what she plans to do with her grant:

Melanie, like all MacArthur fellows learned about her award through an "out of the blue" phone call from the Foundation.  The grants are awarded without stipulations or reporting requirements and offer Fellows the oppportunity to "advance their expertise, engage in bold new work, or, if they wish, to change fields or alter the direction of their careers."

So, what would you do if  you got the call?   What would you do with your Genius Grant?

[hinterauer]

I would invest the money into a green building, with the goal to make, reusable, local energy-sources profitable. in the future.

The building Riedgasse 19a, A-6850 Dornbirn will use geothermic energy, thermal-solar energy and PV.

The grant would be used for improvment of the local energy-storage and energy-softgrid.

Yours sincerely,

lorenz.hinterauer@vol.at