MCB professor Nicholas Bellono has been chosen as a 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in Neuroscience. Each year, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awards $70,000 to 126 outstanding early career faculty in a wide range of disciplines. The fellowship is one of the most prestigious in the country and supports researchers with extraordinary potential to make new discoveries.
“I am delighted to see Nick receive the Sloan Research Fellowship!” says MCB professor and department chair Venkatesh Murthy, who received a Sloan Fellowship in Neuroscience in 2000. “[Bellono] is an exceptionally creative young scientist that has already blazed a trail in sensory biophysics and is poised to make more amazing discoveries.”
Past Sloan Research Fellows have gone on to garner Nobel Prizes, Fields Medals, and other prestigious awards. Bellono joins Murthy and two other MCB faculty who received Sloan Research Fellowships. MCB professor Nao Uchida garnered Sloan Research Fellowships in Neuroscience in 2008, and Andres Leschziner, who was named a Sloan Research Fellow in Computational & Evolutionary Molecular Biology in 2009.
“I am very appreciative to be selected for this fellowship among so many great scientists from diverse fields. Such support is important as we establish our laboratory and training environment that emphasizes curiosity and creativity,” Bellono says.
The $70,000 fellowship will support Bellono’s work on sensory adaptation in animals and cells. The Sloan Research Fellowship is open-ended, allowing recipients to pursue intriguing lines of inquiry. “We are particularly grateful for such flexible support as it encourages us to explore new and unanticipated directions,” Bellono adds.
Congratulations to Nick Bellono and all the other 2019 Sloan Research Fellows!
Nick Bellono faculty profile, Bellono lab website
by Diana Crow
