Three UC Irvine researchers have been awarded Sloan Research Fellowships
this year: Natalia Komarova, assistant professor of mathematics with a
joint appointment in ecology and evolutionary biology, for mathematics;
Frances Chance, assistant professor of neurobiology and behavior, for
neuroscience; and Thorsten Ritz, assistant professor of physics and
astronomy, for molecular biology. All three researchers are associated
with UCI's Center for Complex Biological Systems, an interdisciplinary
center that focuses on the study of biological processes as whole

Dr. Zhiqin Lu has received a $400,000 CAREER
award from the National Science Foundation. This Faculty Early Career
Development Program offers the NSF's most prestigious awards for new
faculty members who show promise as leaders of the 21st century.

It is noteworthy that this award has an educational component in addition
to the research component. Zhiqin's involvement with Mathcounts, Freshman
Seminars, and his research supervision of graduate and undergraduate
students played a key role in his receiving the award.