“These 24 delightfully diverse MacArthur Fellows are shedding light and making progress on critical issues, pushing the boundaries of their fields, and improving our world in imaginative, unexpected ways,” MacArthur President Julia Stasch said in a statement. “Their work, their commitment, and their creativity inspire us all.”

The recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship get a no-strings attached award of $625,000, which is paid out in equal quarterly installments over five years.

Here is the full list of winners:

Patrick Awuah, 50, an education entrepreneur and founder of the Ashesi University College in Accra, Ghana, whose “innovation in higher education is not only empowering individual students; it also has the potential to transform political and civil society in Ghana and other African nations by developing a new generation of leaders and entrepreneurs.”

Kartik Chandran, 41, an environmental engineer at Columbia University, who “through his groundbreaking research and its practical applications, … is demonstrating the hidden value of wastewater, conserving vital resources, and protecting public health.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates, 39, “a journalist, blogger, and memoirist who brings personal reflection and historical scholarship to bear on America’s most contested issues.”

Gary Cohen, 59, co-founder and president of Health Care Without Harm in Reston, Virginia, who “is repositioning environmentally conscious health care as prudent, cost-effective, and easily within reach.”

Matthew Desmond, 35, an urban sociologist at Harvard University, who “is shedding light on how entrenched poverty and racial inequality are built and sustained by housing policies in large American cities.”

William Dichtel, 37, a chemist at Cornell University, whose “breadth of expertise, ranging from small molecule organic chemistry to materials and device fabrication, and his pioneering demonstration of [covalent organic frameworks] with unprecedented functionality and improved stability have made him a leading figure in chemistry.”

The tap dancer and choreographer Michelle Dorrance, 36, whose “choreographic sense of tap as a musical and visual expression is bringing it to entirely new contexts and enhancing the appreciation of tap as an innovative, serious, and evolving art form.”

The painter Nicole Eisenman, 50, who with her “challenging engagement with the human figure and investigation of social meaning, … is developing new conventions of figuration to address enduring themes of the human condition.”

LaToya Ruby Frazier, 33, a photographer and video artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago whose “uncompromising and moving work illustrates how contemporary photography can open conversations about American history, class structures, and social responsibility.”

The writer Ben Lerner, 36, who the foundation says is “transcending conventional distinctions of genre and style in a body of work that constitutes an extended meditation on how to capture our contemporary moment.”