The New York Academy of Sciences has selected four New York University researchers for its 2010 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists. The winners were announced at the Academy's annual "Science and the City Gala" held November 15 in New York City.
Evgeny Nudler, the Julie Wilson Anderson Professor of Biochemistry at NYU Langone Medical Center, was among the faculty awardees, each of whom received $25,000 in unrestricted funding. Daniela Schiller, a former post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science and currently an assistant professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center, received a post-doctoral award, which includes $15,000 in unrestricted funding. Neal Weiner, an associate professor in the Department of Physics, and Elza Erkip, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Polytechnic Institute of NYU, were both finalists for the faculty award and each received $10,000 in unrestricted funding.
Nudler conducts research on transcription, including bacterial gene regulation. Schiller, who was recognized for her studies conducted at NYU as part of the laboratory of neuroscientist Elizabeth Phelps, focuses on memory and emotion. Weiner, a faculty member in NYU's Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, does research on the universe's energy sources, including dark matter. Erkip, a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, does work on wireless communications, information theory, and communication theory.
"Now in its fourth year, the Young Scientists awards program was established to encourage scientific talent by supporting promising scientists early in their careers when they are most in need of funding and recognition," said Len Blavatnik of the Blavatnik Family Foundation in presenting the awards. "The development and support for the next generation of leading scientists in the United States and their scientific research is an issue of great national importance and one about which I care deeply. The Blavatnik Family Foundation is proud to support and honor these wonderfully creative and intelligent finalists."
For more on the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists, go to: www.nyas.org/awards.