Four exceptional young scientists at UCLA are among 118 scientists and scholars from 61 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada to receive 2009 Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The fellowships are awarded to "exceptional young researchers" based on their "outstanding promise of making fundamental contributions to new knowledge," according to the New York-based foundation.

UCLA is tied for fifth in the nation in the number of 2009 Sloan Research Fellowships awarded to its faculty members, along with Princeton University and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Only the University of California, Berkeley; Harvard University; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and the University of Chicago have more 2009 fellows.

The UCLA recipients are:

Paula Diaconescu
Assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry and an expert on inorganic chemistry, whose research involves the design and synthesis of complexes with specific geometric and electronic properties.
(http://copper.chem.ucla.edu/pldgroup/index.htm )

Eleazar Eskin
Assistant professor of computer science and human genetics, who develops techniques for solving the computational problems that arise in attempting to understand the genetic basis of human disease.
(http://zarlab.cs.ucla.edu)

Patrik Guggenberger
Assistant professor of economics and an expert on econometrics, who develops statistical methods that are of use for estimation and testing of economic models.
(www.econ.ucla.edu/people/faculty/Guggenberger.html)

Yi Tang
Associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and an expert on natural product biochemistry, engineered biosynthesis, biocatalysis and protein engineering, and biomaterials.
(www.seas.ucla.edu/~yitang/index.htm)

Sloan Research Fellowships are intended to enhance the careers of exceptional young scientists and scholars in physics, chemistry, mathematics, neuroscience, economics, computer science and molecular biology.

UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of nearly 38,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer more than 323 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Four alumni and five faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.

For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom.