Here Are The 6 People In Tech Who Just Won A $600,000 'Genius Grant'

YouTube / MacArthur FoundationLooks like we've got some new rising stars of the tech world to get excited about.

The MacArthur Foundation announced its "genius grant" fellows today, and the list includes six people working creatively in the technology space to make the world a better place.

The Foundation chooses its grant recipients not as a reward for their past accomplishments, but as "an investment in a person's originality, insight, and potential."

Each winner will receive $625,000 over five years to spend on whatever he or she wants. This year, 24 people made the cut, with fields ranging from immigration law to paleobotany.

So, without further adieu, here are the six tech people you should keep your eye on:

Phil Baran: Organic chemist inventing efficient, scalable, and environmentally sound ways to recreate natural products with potential pharmaceutical uses.

Craig Fennie: Materials scientist designing new materials with electrical, optical and magnetic properties needed for electronics and communication technology.

Carl Haber: Experimental physicist developing new technologies for the preservation of rare, damaged, and deteriorating sound recordings.

Dina Katabi: Computer scientist working on interfacing computer science and electrical engineering to improve the speed and security of data exchange.

Sheila Nirenberg: Neuroscientist exploring the nervous system and creating new prosthetic devices and robots.

Ana Maria Rey: Atomic Physicist advancing our ability to simulate, manipulate, and control novel states of matter through fundamental conceptual research on ultra-cold atoms.

You can check out the complete list of MacArthur genius grant winners here.