Sloan Foundation Names 2009 Fellows

TWENTY-THREE RESEARCHERS in the field of chemistry are among the 118 early-career scientists, mathematicians, and economists who have been named Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellows for 2009.

Through the fellowships, the New York City-based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is awarding a total of $5.9 million to faculty members at 61 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada. The fellows conduct research at the frontiers of physics, chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, and neuroscience.

“The Sloan Research Fellowships support the work of exceptional young researchers early in their academic careers and often at pivotal stages in their work,” says Paul L. Joskow, president of the Sloan Foundation. “I am proud of the foundation’s rich history in providing the resources and flexibility necessary for young researchers to enhance their scholarship, and I look forward to the future achievements of the 2009 Sloan Research Fellows.”

Grants totaling $50,000 are awarded to each fellow’s institution in care of the fellow. Sloan Research Fellows are free to use the funds in creative ways to further their research.

“It is a great honor and a privilege to be chosen for this distinction,” says Jeffrey Pyun, a 2009 recipient of the fellowship and an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Arizona. “It provides important feedback to young investigators to let them know that their research is worthwhile.” In his research on the fundamental synthetic chemistry of polymeric nanomaterials, Pyun is working to solve problems in energy storage and conversion.

Receiving the fellowship is “a big vote of confidence for young scientists,” says Rory Waterman, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Vermont who is another 2009 fellowship recipient. The fellowship will allow his group “to do more high-risk, high-payoff work” in the area of catalytic bond formation, he says.

Other 2009 recipients in the field of chemistry are Richmond Sarpong and Rachel A. Segalman of the University of California, Berkeley; Paula Diaconescu and Yi Tang of the University of California, Los Angeles; Thuc-Quyen Nguyen of the University of California, Santa Barbara; Thomas G. Gray of Case Western Reserve University; Dmitri Talapin of the University of Chicago; Niels H. Damrauer of the University of Colorado, Boulder; Peng Chen of Cornell University; Alán Aspuru-Guzik of Harvard University; Martin D. Burke and Benjamin J. McCall of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Liming Zhang of the University of Nevada, Reno; Steven A. Corcelli of the University of Notre Dame; Jennifer J. Kohler and Joseph M. Ready of the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center; Vy Maria Dong and Aaron R. Wheeler of the University of Toronto; Edward Valeev of Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University; and Song Jin and Tehshik P. Yoon of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. A complete list of winners can be found at sloan.org/fellowships/page/19/.