Meet Nels Elde, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Utah and recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship

If you can explain what an “evolutionary geneticist” is, you should probably be eligible for a MacArthur Fellowship. If you are one, like Nels Elde at the University of Utah, than the fellowship is apparently a shoo-in.

Elde was one of 21 people who received the fellowships — sometimes called a “genius grant” — in early October. I interviewed him the day the announcement was made, and he talked about his work and what he plans to do with the money — $625,000, paid out over five years.