Scientists win prestigious fellowships

Two researchers are among 116 scientists, mathematicians and economists chosen to receive a prestigious 2004 Sloan Research Fellowship.

Selecting young scientists in the United States who are engaged in cutting-edge, innovative research, the New York-based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation annually awards fellows $45,000, for use over two years.

“I felt so great when I found out I won, this is a significant honor in my career,” says one of the new Sloan fellows, Daesung Lee, an assistant chemistry professor.

Working in an area known as metathesis chemistry, Lee is developing “powerful” synthetic tools to build novel compounds with potential medicinal properties. Lee says he plans to use the Sloan funds to financially support graduate students in his laboratory.

“It’s fantastic to be recognized in this way,” says Jordan Ellenberg, also a new Sloan fellow and soon to be an assistant mathematics professor at UW–Madison. “In math you spend a lot of time in contemplation, so it’s nice to get this kind of feedback from people.”

Ellenberg is a number theorist working in the area of arithmetic geometry, a field that has influenced the science of cryptography. In particular, Ellenberg is using modern mathematical tools to answer questions related to the legendary Fermat’s Last Theorem. Currently an assistant professor at Princeton University, Ellenberg says he will put his Sloan funds to use once he joins faculty in the fall of 2005.

Department chairs and other senior scholars nominate candidates for the Sloan fellowship, the oldest fellowship in the country. For 50 years, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has spent more than $108 million in supporting more than 4,000 young researchers.