Nels Elde, University of Utah evolutionary geneticist, receives MacArthur Foundation ‘genius grant’

A University of Utah scientist who studies how microbes evolve with their hosts — human bodies — has received one of the nation’s most prestigious awards: A MacArthur Fellowship, often called a “genius grant.”Nels Elde, an evolutionary geneticist at the U., is one of 21 people — a group that includes writers, scientists, sociologists, a property law scholar and a documentary filmmaker — who were picked for their creativity, their track record and their p