Chicago ? A lobsterman from Maine, an oncologist from Nigeria and the first woman to lead a major American symphony are among the 25 people chosen for this year’s MacArthur Foundation “genius grants,” $500,000 that recipients can use however they wish.

Dr. Olufunmilayo Olopade, 48, left Nigeria for Chicago as a young woman and became an international leader in breast cancer research, recently focusing on the molecular genetics of breast cancer in women of African heritage.

Now director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics at the University of Chicago Medical Center, she regularly returns to Nigeria to train doctors in the latest cancer treatments and research.

“To have an opportunity to leverage my position here to help underserved, underprivileged, understudied patients has really been my life’s mission,” Olopade said. “I’m blown away someone took notice.”

The Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation also announced today genius grants to a biologist who documents endangered plants and animals in Madagascar, a violinist who has been giving minority children greater access to classical music and a history professor who focuses on sound.

Violinist Aaron Dworkin, one of 25 recipients of the MacArthur Foundation genius

Lobsterman and fisherman Ted Ames, 66, another recipient, belongs to a family that has fished off the coast of Maine since before the Revolutionary War.

Disturbed by the threat to the fishery ecosystem from over-harvesting, Ames conducts detailed scientific studies of spawning, habitat and fishing patterns – often starting with the anecdotal experiences of aging fishermen.

Among the other recipients:

¢ Conductor Marin Alsop, 48, was named in July as the new music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She will be the first woman to lead a major American symphony.

¢ Violinist Aaron Dworkin, 35, started the Detroit-based Sphinx Organization to boost the number of young minorities in classical music careers by providing them with instruments, training and performance opportunities. Three of his graduates joined U.S. orchestras in the past year.

¢ Biologist Steve Goodman, 48, of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, spends most of the year documenting endangered plants and animals in Madagascar.