CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Three University of Illinois faculty members have been selected to receive the 2001 Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The UI winners are Wilfred van der Donk, chemistry; Jared C. Bronski, mathematics; and Karin A.S. Dahmen, physics.
The three are among 104 outstanding young scientists and economists from 51 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada chosen to receive Sloan fellowships. The winners were selected from among hundreds of highly qualified scientists in the early stages of their careers on the basis of exceptional promise to contribute to the advancement of knowledge. Twenty-six former Sloan Fellows have received Nobel prizes, and hundreds have received other prestigious awards and honors.
The fellowship program is 46 years old. With the current awards, the foundation has spent nearly $92 million for support of more than 3,600 young researchers. Candidates for the fellowships are nominated by department chairs and other senior scholars familiar with their talents.
The fellowship program provides each fellow with a grant of $40,000 for a two-year period; the grants are administered by each fellows institution. Fellows are free to pursue whatever lines of inquiry are of most interest to them, and they are permitted to employ fellowship funds in a wide variety of ways to further their research aims.