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Assistant Professor Jeffrey Pyun is working on new materials that are expected to improve information storage.

By Jeff Harrison, University Communications
February 23, 2009

Jeffrey Pyun, an assistant professor of chemistry at The University of Arizona, is among a group of young scholars named as research fellows by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The foundation selected 118 outstanding early career scientists, mathematicians and economists at 61 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.

The honor, which comes with a two-year, $50,000 award, goes to those who are conducting research at the frontiers of physics, chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics and neuroscience.

Pyun earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Northwestern University in 1997 and his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002. While there, he studied controlled radical polymerization applied to the synthesis of organic/inorganic hybrid materials.

He then moved to a postdoctoral position at the IBM Almaden Research Center from 2002-2004 focusing on the synthesis of complex macromolecular architectures for catalysis. Pyun joined the UA chemistry faculty in fall 2004.

Currently, he is working on the preparation of magnetic nanocomposite materials and the mesoscale assembly of nanoparticles into hierarchically ordered structures. These materials are expected to have in impact in information storage and energy-related technologies.

Pyun has already has been recognized for his work by an NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program Award, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award and an IBM Faculty Award, all in 2007.

"The Sloan research fellowships support the work of exceptional young researchers early in their academic careers, and often at pivotal stages in their work," said Paul L. Joskow, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

"I am proud of the Foundation's rich history in providing the resources and flexibility necessary for young researchers to enhance their scholarship, and I look forward to the future achievements of the 2009 Sloan Research Fellows," Joskow said.

Sloan research fellowships have been awarded since 1955 and initially in only three fields: physics, chemistry and mathematics.

Since then, 38 Sloan Research Fellows have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in their fields. Another 14 have received the Fields Medal, the top honor in mathematics. Although Sloan research fellowships in economics only began in 1983, Sloan fellows have subsequently accounted for 8 of the 13 winners of the John Bates Clark Medal, generally considered the top honor for young economists.

The fellows' grants are administered by each one's institution. Once chosen, Sloan research fellows are free to pursue whatever lines of inquiry are of most interest to them, and they are permitted to employ fellowship funds in a wide variety of ways to further their research aims.