That is the beauty of MacArthur Grants. Even winners won't know that they are being considered for the grant, until their name is announced in the winning list.

The 23 winners of this year's grants come from a spectrum of fields. There are computer scientists, Marine biologists, a journalist, documentary film makers, an author and also a Stringed-Instrument Bow Maker!

They will get a no-strings-attached $500,000 over next five years, which can be used according to the winner's whims. They are free to use the money in pursuit of their creative vision. One need not report to The MacArthur Foundation over how they spend the money.

"The MacArthur Fellowship is designed to provide seed money for intellectual, social, and artistic endeavors. We believe that highly motivated, self-directed, and talented people are in the best position to decide how to allocate their time and resources," says the foundation on its website.

Pulitzer Prize winning author Junot Diaz who is known for his poignantly charming book, 'The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao' is one among this year's MacArthur fellows.

Here is a list of all the winners.

1. Natalia Almada, 37, Mexico City, Documentary filmmaker

2. Uta Barth, 54, Los Angeles, Calif., Conceptual photographer

3. Claire Chase, 34, Brooklyn, N.Y., Arts entrepreneur

4. Raj Chetty, 33, Cambridge, Mass., Public Economist at Harvard University

5. Maria Chudnovsky, 35, New York., Mathematician at Columbia University

6. Eric Coleman, 47, Denver, Colo., Geriatrician at University of Colorado School of Medicine

7. Junot Díaz, 43, Cambridge, Mass., Fiction writer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

8. David Finkel, 56, Washington, D.C., Washington Post journalist

9. Olivier Guyon, 36, Tucson, Ariz., Optical physicist and astronomer at University of Arizona

10. Elissa Hallem, 34, Los Angeles, Neurobiologist at University of California, Los Angeles

11. An-My Le, 52, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. Photographer at Bard College

12. Sarkis Mazmanian, 39, Pasadena, Calif., Medical microbiologist at the California Institute of Technology

13. Dinaw Mengestu, 34, Washington, D.C., Writer

14. Maurice Lim Miller, 66, Oakland, Calif., Social services innovator

15. Dylan C. Penningroth, 41, Evanston, Ill., Historian at Northwestern University

16. Terry Plank, 48, New York, Geochemist at Columbia University

17. Laura Poitras, 48, New York, Documentary filmmaker

18. Nancy Rabalais, 62, Chauvin, La., Marine ecologist at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium

19. Benoit Rolland, 58, Boston, Stringed-instrument bow maker

20. Daniel Spielman, 42, New Haven, Conn., Computer scientist at Yale University

21. Melody Swartz, 43, Lausanne, Switzerland, Bioengineer

22. Chris Thile, 31, New York, Mandolinist and composer

23. Benjamin Warf, 54, Boston, Pediatric neurosurgeon at Children's Hospital of Boston