Announcing the 2017 Sloan Research Fellows

NEW YORK, Feb. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announces the selection of 126 outstanding U.S. and Canadian researchers as the recipients of the 2017 Sloan Research Fellowships. The fellowships, awarded yearly since 1955, honor those early-career scholars whose achievements mark them as the next generation of scientific leaders. Winners receive a $60,000 fellowship to be used as they wish to further their research. A full list of the 2017 Fellows is available at the Sloan Foundation website at https://sloan.org/fellowships/2017-Fellows.

"The Sloan Research Fellows are the rising stars of the academic community," says Paul L. Joskow, President of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. "Through their achievements and ambition, these young scholars are transforming their fields and opening up entirely new research horizons. We are proud to support them at this crucial stage of their careers."

Past Sloan Research Fellows include many towering scientific figures, including physicists Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann, and game theorist John Nash. Forty-three former fellows have received a Nobel Prize in their respective field, 16 have won the Fields Medal in mathematics, 69 have received the National Medal of Science, and 16 have won the John Bates Clark Medal in economics, including every winner since 2007. More information on the achievements of former Sloan Research Fellows can be found at https://sloan.org/past-fellows. 

"Early-career recognition can make a significant difference in the life of a scientist," says Daniel L. Goroff, Vice President at the Sloan Foundation and Director of the Sloan Research Fellowship program. "The rigorous selection process and the prominence of past awardees make the Sloan Research Fellowships one of the most prestigious awards available to young researchers."

Drawn from 60 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, the 2017 Sloan Research Fellows represent a diverse variety of research interests. Among this year's Fellows are:

• A chemist who is developing a heat-reflective window paint to help reduce air conditioning demands in hot climates;
• An evolutionary biologist who models how human gene distributions change with migration;
• An astronomer who is using state-of-the-art spectroscopy to study the galaxy's most massive stars;
• A computer scientist whose work upended a 25-year consensus on algorithmic efficiency;
• An ocean scientist who studies how marine organisms adapt to climate change and the costs of those adaptations;
• An economist who examines the ways that racial bias among managers can suppress employee productivity;
• A mathematician who develops optimal methods for the efficient analysis of large datasets;
• A neuroscientist who studies the way bats learn through echolocation as a model for understanding language development.

Open to scholars in eight scientific and technical fields—chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences, and physics—the Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded in close coordination with the scientific community. Candidates must be nominated by their fellow scientists and winning fellows are selected by independent panels of senior scholars on the basis of each candidate's independent research accomplishments, creativity, and potential to become a leader in his or her field.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropic, not-for-profit grant making institution based in New York City. Established in 1934 by Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr., then-President and Chief Executive Officer of the General Motors Corporation, the Foundation makes grants in support of original research and education in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and economics. https://sloan.org

SOURCE Alfred P. Sloan Foundation