Four Princeton scientists have been selected to receive 2009 Sloan Research Fellowships, highly competitive grants given to outstanding scholars who are conducting research at the frontiers of their fields.
The recipients are:
• Andrei Bernevig, a postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science, who is studying different topics in condensed matter physics — from aspects of the quantum Hall effect to iron high-temperature superconductors. He has been a junior fellow at the Princeton Center for Theoretical Physics since 2006 and will join the Department of Physics as an assistant professor in September.
• Zahid Hasan, an assistant professor of physics, who uses high-energy accelerators to study fundamental quantum effects in exotic superconductors, topological insulators and quantum magnets in connection with developing new methods of quantum computing. He joined the faculty in 2002.
• Andrew Houck, an assistant professor of electrical engineering, who is researching the properties of electronics on a quantum level. He earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Princeton, graduating as the valedictorian of the class of 2000. He joined the Princeton faculty this past September.
• William Jones, an assistant professor of physics and specialist in observational cosmology. He is using the large-scale polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation as a laboratory for probing the physics of the embryonic universe. A 1998 Princeton graduate, he joined the faculty this past September.
They are among 118 scientists, mathematicians and economists chosen for the award. Sloan Research Fellows are free to pursue whatever lines of inquiry are of most interest to them, and they are permitted to employ the funds in a wide variety of ways to further their research aims. The grants of $50,000 each for a two-year period are administered by their institutions.
The fellowships have been awarded since 1955. Many Sloan Fellows have gone on to win Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, the top honor in mathematics. The foundation is a philanthropic institution based in New York City. It was established by Alfred Sloan Jr., then-president and chief executive officer of the General Motors Corp.
