Angela Belcher, associate professor of materials science at MIT, has received a 2004 MacArthur Fellowship.

The Fellowship, with its non-restricted stipend of $500,000, is intended for “individuals who show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work.” Along with other research projects, Belcher has genetically modified viruses to interact with solutions of inorganic semiconductors, yielding self-assembling metal films and wires with diameters in the low tens of nanometers.