Andrew Ault, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Chemistry, has been named a 2018 Sloan Research Fellow. Research in the Ault Group focuses on understanding the physicochemical properties and transformation of atmospheric aerosols and engineered nanoparticles in the environment.

He recently published a paper with Chemistry graduate student Nate May and Assistant Professor Kerri Pratt that showed that biological material from harmful algal blooms in Lake Michigan and Lake Erie water could become aerosolized. [pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.7b03609]

This year's other UM Sloan awardees are: Josie Clowney, assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology; Jia Deng, assistant professor of computer science and engineering; and Ada Eban-Rothschild, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience.

Open to scholars in eight scientific and technical fields — chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences and physics — the fellowships honor those early-career researchers whose achievements mark them as the next generation of scientific leaders. The 126 Sloan Fellows for 2018 were selected in close coordination with the research community. Candidates are nominated by their peers, and fellows are selected by independent panels of senior scholars based on each candidate’s research accomplishments, creativity and potential to become a leader in his or her field. Each fellow will receive $65,000 to apply toward research endeavors.

"The Sloan Research Fellows represent the very best science has to offer," said Sloan president Adam Falk. "The brightest minds, tackling the hardest problems, and succeeding brilliantly—fellows are quite literally the future of 21st century science."

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropic, not-for-profit grant making institution based in New York City. Established in 1934 by Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr., then-president and chief executive officer of General Motors Corp., the foundation makes grants in support of original research and education in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and economics.