Since 1980, the prestigious Searle Scholars Program has funded early-career scientists who show exceptional promise. MCB faculty Nick Bellono has been selected as one of this year’s 15 awardees. He will receive $300,000 in funding over the next three years.
“I am very appreciative to be selected as a Searle Scholar among so many great scientists,” Bellono says. “This award will help support our studies concerning how organisms adapt to their specific ecological or behavioral context.”
Past Searle Scholars include several Harvard faculty, such as MCB’s Doeke Hekstra, who became a Searle Scholar in 2018; Ethan Garner, who received the honor in 2013; and Catherine Dulac, who won the award in 1998.
The Searle Scholars Program is designed to enable early-career lab runners to undertake high risk, high reward experiments. “We are grateful for this flexible support as it encourages us to explore new and unanticipated directions, thereby helping us to establish an environment that emphasizes curiosity and creativity,” Bellono says.
“We are thrilled to see Nick receive the Searle Award,” adds MCB chair Venkatesh Murthy. “This award is perfect for him, since it is intended to catalyze daring research by exceptional young scientists…I am eager to see what adventurous science Nick will do with this award!”
Nick Bellono faculty profile, Bellono lab website
by Diana Crow
