Computer science professor named 2017 Sloan Research Fellow

Feb 21, 2017

By UCLA Samueli Newsroom

Sriram Sankararaman, an assistant professor of computer science and human genetics, was one of four exceptional young UCLA professors selected to receive 2017 Sloan Research Fellowship, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced today.

Sankararaman’s areas of research include computational biology, statistical genomics and statistical machine learning. He develops novel statistical models and algorithms to analyze large-scale genomic data with the aim of understanding evolutionary processes as well as the genetic basis of complex phenotypes.

“The Sloan Research Fellows are the rising stars of the academic community,” said Paul L. Joskow, President of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in the organization’s announcement. “Through their achievements and ambition, these young scholars are transforming their fields and opening up entirely new research horizons. We are proud to support them at this crucial stage of their careers.”

The three other UCLA faculty members to receive a Sloan Fellowship this year are: Pablo Fajgelbaum, an assistant professor of economics; Weizhe Hong, an assistant professor of biological chemistry and neurobiology in UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine; and Alexander Spokoyny, an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry. The UCLA quartet are among 126 early career scientists and scholars in the United States and Canada to be awarded a 2017 Sloan Research fellowship. The fellowships, awarded yearly since 1955, honor those early-career scholars whose achievements mark them as the next generation of scientific leaders. Winners receive a $60,000 fellowship to be used as they wish to further their research.

Photo: Sriram Sankararaman

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