The University of Utah's Susan Mango has won $500,000 MacArthur "genius" grant. Mango works at the Huntsman Cancer Institute studying tiny worms to somehow, someday cure cancer.

What you probably don't know is that Mango is a doting mother and a doting daughter, a hiker, a huge fan of My Neighbor Totoro along with wine and good food — basically your all-around harried professional Utah woman.

Her boyfriend, a scientist at Havard in an equally arcane field, recently accused Susan of being a "nerd" not because she spends her days and nights studying tiny round worms, but because he discovered she has a fascination with whether Shakespeare actually wrote all those plays. Last I heard, she says, no way.

Full disclosure: Mango is a friend of mine — which casts serious doubt on her "genius" rating.