Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Two University of Illinois professors win 2008 Sloan Fellowships

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A University of Illinois professor has been named a recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation research fellowship. ChengXiang Zhai, a professor of computer science, was among 118 early career researchers from 64 colleges and universities who will receive grants of $50,000 for a two-year period.

“The Sloan Research Fellowships support the work of exceptional young researchers early in their academic careers, and often at pivotal stages in their work,” says Paul L. Joskow, the president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Zhai’s research interests include information retrieval, text mining, natural language processing, machine learning and bioinformatics in computer science. He is interested in intelligent information access centered on a search engine retrieval system that would track a user’s interest and recommend relevant information items to the user. Zhai was among 58 young researchers named recipients of the 2004 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers.

Michael Strano, who was in the U. of I. department of chemical and biomolecular engineering, also was awarded a fellowship. He now is at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and retains an adjunct professorship at Illinois. Strano developed a technique to chemically select and separate carbon nanotubes based on their electronic structure.

Sloan Research Fellowships have been awarded since 1955.

Read Next

Life sciences Photo of Michael Ward standing in tall grass on a riverbank.

How are migrating wild birds affected by H5N1 infection in the U.S.?

Each spring, roughly 3.5 billion wild birds migrate from their warm winter havens to their breeding grounds across North America, eating insects, distributing plant seeds and providing a variety of other ecosystem services to stopping sites along the way. Some also carry diseases like avian influenza, a worry for agricultural, environmental and public health authorities. […]

Announcements Marcelo Garcia, professor of civil and environmental engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering.

Illinois faculty member elected to National Academy of Engineering

Champaign, Ill. — Marcelo Garcia, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Social sciences Male and female student embracing on the quad with flowering redbud tree and the ACES library in the background. Photo by Michelle Hassel

Dating is not broken, but the trajectories of relationships have changed

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — According to some popular culture writers and online posts by discouraged singles lamenting their inability to find romantic partners, dating is “broken,” fractured by the social isolation created by technology, pandemic lockdowns and potential partners’ unrealistic expectations. Yet two studies of college students conducted a decade apart found that their ideas about […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010