Seven junior MIT faculty have won 2008 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellows, which are intended to enhance the careers of the very best young faculty members in specified fields of science. Along with faculty at the University of California at Berkeley, MIT professors won more of the two-year, $50,000 Sloan Fellowship grants this year than individuals at any other school.
MIT faculty among this year's Sloan Research Fellows are Edward S. Boyden, Benesse Career Development Assistant Professor of Research in Education; Mikhail Golosov, Rudiger Dornbusch Career Development Assistant Professor of Economics; Manolis Kellis, Karl R. Van Tassel (1925) Career Development Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Mohammad Movassaghi, Firmenich Career Development Assistant Professor of Chemistry; Aviv Regev, assistant professor of biology; Mehmet Fatih Yanik, assistant professor of electrical engineering; and Martin W. Zwierlein, assistant professor of physics.
The fellowships were established in 1955 to provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars, often in their first appointments to university faculties, who were endeavoring to set up laboratories and establish their independent research projects with little or no outside support. Financial assistance at this crucial point, even in modest amounts, often pays handsome dividends later to society.
"The Sloan Research Fellowships support the work of exceptional young researchers early in their academic careers, and often at pivotal stage in their work," said Sloan Foundation President Paul L. Joskow, Elizabeth and James Killian (1926) Professor of Economics and Management.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on February 27, 2008 (download PDF).
