Three Texans have been named 2026 MacArthur Fellows, one of the most prestigious honors in the U.S. for artists, scientists, and scholars. Among them is San Marcos-based forensic anthropologist Kate Spradley, the first MacArthur Fellow at Texas State University.

Dallas-based historian Ariel Ron and San Antonio artist Vincent Valdez were also on the list of 20 recipients of the “genius grants” given by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Each fellow will receive $800,000 over five years, with no strings attached.

Individuals do not apply for the honor. The grants are awarded via a confidential, multi-step process managed by the foundation, and many recipients express surprise that they were considered for the fellowship.

“While individuals will have a track record of significant achievement, the fellowship is not a lifetime achievement award — it is an investment in a person's originality, insight, and potential,” wrote MacArthur on its website. “The Fellows Program is proactively working to foster and enable innovative, imaginative, and ground-breaking ideas, thinking, and strategies.”

At Texas State, Spradley founded Operation Identification in 2013 — a program that identifies and repatriates the remains of migrants who died along the Texas-Mexico border. She is also a cofounder of the Forensic Border Coalition, which pushes for policy changes at the local and national levels.

In San Antonio, Valdez is currently serving as Alamo Colleges’ inaugural artist-in-residence. Born on the South Side and now splitting time between San Antonio and Houston, he is known for large, hyperrealistic drawings and paintings of Mexican American life. More recently, he has turned his focus to broader sociopolitical issues in works like The Strangest Fruit, a series of paintings confronting the lynching of Latinos.

Ron is a historian at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he directs the Clements Center for Southwest Studies. His research focuses on how Northern agriculture shaped economic growth and federal power in 19th-century America. Grassroots Leviathan, his 2020 book, challenges the notion of an industrial North versus an agrarian South.

A full list of the 2026 MacArthur Fellows can be found online.