Seven awarded Sloan grants

The recipients are computer science professor David Blei, physics professor Christopher Herzog, geosciences professor Adam Maloof, chemical engineering professor Celeste Nelson, psychology professor Yael Niv, economics professor Yuliy Sannikov and assistant mathematics professor Amit Singer. They will each receive $50,000 in unrestricted grants for a two-year period.

“The Sloan is a prestigious and highly competitive program, and so to have seven Sloans in one year is quite impressive,” Dean of the Faculty David Dobkin said in an e-mail. “I have served on the Sloan committee, and I know that often as few as one in eight candidates (in a competitive field) is awarded a research fellowship.”

“The new Sloan fellows come from a wide range of departments, which suggests that our success is not limited to one area,” Dobkin added.

Blei, who studies machine learning —which seeks to use computer algorithms to “take advantage of patterns in large data sets” — said he was “delighted and surprised” to learn that he was a fellowship recipient.

“It’s really going to be great,” he said, explaining that he plans to use the funds to purchase equipment, fund travel and support other expenditures.

Maloof, who studies ancient climate change, the origin of animals and the relationship between the two, said in an e-mail that he intends to use the grants for either “a new seed project in the Arctic” or “a new automated serial grinder and photo-imager for 3-D fossil reconstruction of the most ancient animals.”

“It feels awesome to win the Sloan,” he noted. “Half the fun was doing some research to find out who Alfred Sloan was and why there is a fellowship. It is actually the first award of any kind that I have ever won!”

Singer, who uses algorithms to study macromolecules and their 3-D structure, explained that colleagues Blei and Niv helped him realize the Sloan’s prestige.

After understanding the magnitude of the award, he said he was “very pleased and very happy.”

Nelson said she plans to use the grant to purchase equipment for “manipulating developing tissues.”

“My group uses engineered tissues and computational models to study how tissues and organs attain their unique shapes during development,” Nelson explained in an e-mail. “Our goal is to be able to describe quantitatively how tree-like organs (such as the lungs) are formed, with such precision that the community might be able to build them ex vivo in the future.”

Herzog said the symbolic significance of the Sloan is more important to him than the money he will receive.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“Most of the value is in its prestige,” Herzog explained. “I hope it will improve my job prospects and my chances of getting tenure. It will help me pursue funding from other agencies.”

“It’s modest, but it has fewer strings, so it’s kind of flexible,” he added. “It can go towards hiring a post-doc, or it can help me hire a grad student, or I can use it for travel.”

Several of the winners noted that their teaching experiences have proved useful in their research efforts.

“I do find inspiration in my teaching from time to time,” Herzog said. “It helps to look at something from a mature perspective and ask questions about something I haven’t seen in a while. I got a paper out of experience teaching undergraduate quantum mechanics.”

Nelson called students the “engine” of her research group.

“One unanticipated benefit of my research has been the ability to learn about how the human body works — I enjoy sharing this information with students,” she said.

The Sloan Fellowships, which have been awarded since 1955, are sponsored by The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which was established by Alfred Sloan Jr. when he was CEO and president of General Motors Corp.