NEW YORK, February 20, 2025 — The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announces the names of the 126 early career researchers who have been selected to receive a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2025. Awarded annually since 1955, the fellowships honor exceptional researchers at US and Canadian educational institutions, whose creativity, innovation, and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of leaders. A full list of the 2025 Fellows cohort is available at https://sloan.org/fellowships/2025-fellows.
“The Sloan Research Fellows represent the very best of early-career science, embodying the creativity, ambition, and rigor that drive discovery forward,” says Adam F. Falk, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “These extraordinary scholars are already making significant contributions, and we are confident they will shape the future of their fields in remarkable ways.”
A Sloan Research Fellowship is one of the most prestigious awards available to young researchers, in part because so many past Fellows have gone on to become distinguished figures in science. To date, 58 Fellows have received a Nobel Prize, including John Hopfield, last year’s Nobel laureate in physics. 72 have won the National Medal of Science, 17 have won the Fields Medal in mathematics, and 24 have won the John Bates Clark Medal in economics, including every winner since 2009. A database of current and former Sloan Research Fellows can be found at https://sloan.org/fellows-database.
Fellows in this year’s cohort are drawn from a diverse range of 51 institutions across the US and Canada. More than 1,000 researchers are nominated by their fellow scientists each year. Open to scholars in seven fields—chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, and physics—the fellowships are awarded in close coordination with the scientific community. Winners are selected by independent panels of senior scholars based on their research accomplishments, creativity, and potential to become a leader in their field.
“The selection of Sloan Research Fellows is a rigorous and community-driven process,” says Daniel L. Goroff, Director of the Sloan Research Fellowship program. “From the institutions that nominate outstanding candidates, to the senior scholars who carefully evaluate each nomination, this award is the result of a collaborative commitment to recognizing and supporting today’s most promising researchers.”
Winners receive a two-year, $75,000 fellowship which can be used flexibly to advance the Fellow’s research.
Nominations for the 2026 Sloan Research Fellowships will open on July 15, 2026.
About the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a not-for-profit, mission-driven grantmaking institution dedicated to improving the welfare of all through the advancement of scientific knowledge. Founded in 1934 by industrialist Alfred P. Sloan Jr., the Foundation disburses approximately $80 million in grants each year in four broad areas: direct support of research in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and economics; initiatives to increase the quality and diversity of scientific institutions and the science workforce; projects to develop or leverage technology to empower research; and efforts to enhance and deepen public engagement with science and scientists. Sloan Foundation grantmaking helped create some of the country’s most influential and enduring scientific institutions, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the MIT Sloan School of Management, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Sloan support has also played a critical role in the early development of many scientific fields, including cognitive science, behavioral economics, and indoor microbial ecology. The Foundation strives to be guided in all its actions by the values of the scientific enterprise: impartiality, empiricism, curiosity, rigor, and the conviction that a reasoned, systematic understanding of the forces of nature and society, when applied inventively and wisely, can lead to a better world for all.
About the Wharton School
Founded in 1881 as the world’s first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is shaping the future of business by incubating ideas, driving insights, and creating leaders who change the world. With a faculty of more than 235 renowned professors, Wharton has 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students. Each year, 100,000 professionals from around the world advance their careers through Wharton Executive Education’s individual, company-customized, and online programs, and thousands of pre-collegiate students explore business concepts through Wharton’s Global Youth Program. More than 105,000 Wharton alumni form a powerful global network of leaders who transform business every day. For more information, visit www.wharton.upenn.edu.
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