Environmental engineering professor Tami Bond has been named a MacArthur Fellow for her work in black carbon emissions (soot) and its effect on climate change and human health.

Each year, the MacArthur Foundation chooses 20 to 25 people to receive a scholarship, which is a $625,000 grant dispersed over five years.

Nominations are anonymous, meaning Bond did not find out she was in the running until she received the call that she had won.

“How they choose (winners) is kind of a mystery to everyone,” Bond said. “If you look at people who have received it, they’re very diverse in terms of what they focus on.”

Other winners this year include a cartoonist, a civil rights lawyer, a jazz composer, a poet and more.

While Bond is still adjusting to this new achievement, becoming a fellow has her thinking about the next steps she wants to take in her research.

“It certainly means that you can begin to think of things that you can do without restriction,” she said. “In most people’s lives, what you choose to do for your employment has something to do with what you love.”

This weekend, Bond will be attending the 13th International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Conference on Atmospheric Chemistry in Brazil to present on admissions in the future and how the technology we choose affects what those admissions could be.

Brittney can be reached at [email protected].