Four faculty members named Sloan fellows

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowships have been awarded to four faculty scientists: Philippe Guyot-Sionnest, Assistant Professor in Chemistry and Physics; Tomas Philipson, Assistant Professor in Economics; and Tatiana Toro and Xiaochun Rong, both Assistant Professors in Mathematics. They each will receive $35,000 in research funds.

Guyot-Sionnest, whose research is on the interface between chemistry and physics, uses lasers to study the reaction dynamics on surfaces and also has interests in nonlinear optics. He received his Ph.D. from Berkeley in 1987 and joined the University faculty in 1991. He was awarded a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship in 1992.

Philipson is a health economist who studies economic epidemiology, for example, the impact of information on the spread of diseases such as AIDS and the economic aspects of health data production. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989 and joined the Chicago faculty in 1990.

Toro, who specializes in geometric analysis, has been on the University faculty since 1994. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford in 1992.

Rong's research interests are in geometry/topology and geometric analysis. He received his Ph.D. from SUNY at Stony Brook in 1990 and joined the University faculty in 1994.

Since receiving their awards, Toro has accepted a faculty position at the University of Washington beginning with the fall term, and Rong has accepted a faculty position at Rutgers.

The University's Sloan fellows are among 100 young scientists and economists in the United States and Canada selected to receive this year's awards. The fellowships are awarded to young scientists in the early stages of their careers on the basis of their exceptional promise to contribute to the advancement of knowledge. Candidates for the fellowships are nominated by department chairs and other senior scholars.