CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Neil L. Kelleher, a professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is among 20 U.S. researchers named 2002 Packard Fellows in natural sciences by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Kelleher, 32, joined the Illinois faculty in July 1999. He received his fellowship in recognition of his work on the development of new instrumentation and analytical techniques that facilitate the rapid identification and characterization of proteins. He will receive $520,000 over five years for his work.
Kelleher earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1992 from the Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., his master’s in 1995, and his doctorate in 1997, both in bioanalytical chemistry from Cornell University. Before coming to Illinois, Kelleher spent 19 months as a postdoctoral research associate at the Harvard Medical School.
Among his awards, Kelleher recently received a Cotrell Scholars Award and a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Society of Mass Spectrometry and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The Packard Foundation, founded in 1964 and based in Los Altos, Calif., provides funding to early career scientists to pursue their science and engineering research with few restrictions. Each year, new fellows are chosen from nominations submitted by the presidents of 50 universities.
