The 2014 MacArthur Fellows: Here Are The 21 Luminaries You Should Know

From a 36-year-old Harvard mathematician to 71-year-old independent historian to 53-year-old public artist, the class of 2014 MacArthur Fellows is here to redefine your definition of genius.

Jacob Lurie, Pamela O. Long and Rick Lowe are just three of the 21 people to receive the coveted "genius grant," an award bestowed upon luminaries every year by the MacArthur Foundation. The fellowship comes with a $625,000 prize, along with a comfortable seat in the archives of cultural history.

The MacArthur accolade, founded in 1978, is dolled out annually to a group of high-achieving individuals in disciplines as diverse as theater, computer science, history and civil rights law. What was once a $50,000 award has since morphed into a six-figure prize. Past winners include artist Kara Walker, astrophysicist Joseph Taylor, and writer Thomas Pynchon.

This year, the fellows include nine women and 12 men, ranging in age from the 32 to 71. Cartoonist Alison Bechdel -- the woman behind the eponymous 'Bechdel Test' -- received recognition along with Native American advocate Sarah Deer and Arab poetry scholar Khaled Mattawa. See the entire list of 2014 MacAthur Fellows below:

See a list of the 2013 winners here.