By Meaghan Thurston
Simon Gravel, an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Genetics, was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship earlier this morning, in recognition of his potential to make substantial contributions to the field of human genetics. Gravel is breaking the research mold, and refining our understanding of modern human origins by learning from history, biology, and technology.
Using mathematical, computational, and statistical models to push forward understanding of diverse types of genomic data, Gravel is tackling biological questions otherwise unanswerable using conventional cell-biology methods.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation established the fellowship program in 1955, for early-career researchers in three categories: physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Additional research-areas were added in subsequent years, to include neuroscience, economics, computer science, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, and ocean sciences. Candidates must be nominated by their fellow scientists, and winning fellows are selected by an independent panel of senior scholars. The Foundation currently awards 126 Sloan Research Fellowships each year, and Fellows receive $50,000 to further their research. The Foundation awards $5.9 million annually.
Read the full story in the McGill Reporter.
February 18, 2014