Rutgers University has a “genius” in its midst. History professor Julie Livingston won the prestigious fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation, popularly termed the “genius grant,” Rutgers announced Wednesday.

The five-year fellowship, which was awarded to 24 people in 2013, comes with a $625,000 unrestricted stipend.

Livingston specializes in public health and African history. Livingston spent a sabbatical year and three summers at Princess Marina Hospital Botswana researching her most recent book, Improvising Medicine: An African Oncology Ward in an Emerging Cancer Epidemic....