Beckman Foundation Announces 2024 Beckman Young Investigator Awardees

Ten Researchers Selected to Receive $6M in Total Science Funding for Cutting-edge Research

IRVINE, Calif., June 11, 2024 The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation announced today the selection of its 2024 class of Beckman Young Investigator Awardees from U.S. colleges and universities. The awardees exemplify the Foundation's mission of supporting the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments, and materials that will open new avenues of research in science. They were selected from a pool of approximately 300 applicants after a three-part review led by a panel of scientific experts.

This year's award offers $600,000 in funding over four years to each of the following researchers:

"We are excited to welcome each of these outstanding scientists into the Beckman 'family,' to help launch these extremely creative projects, and to see them reach their full potential." - Dr. Anne Hultgren, Beckman Foundation Executive Director

Kevin Clark, PhD, Tufts University
Caitlin Davis, PhD, Yale University
Matthew Griffin, PhD, University of California, Irvine
Barbara Jusiak, PhD, University of California, Irvine
Ayokunle Olanrewaju, PhD, University of Washington
Sam Peng, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cristina Rodriguez, PhD, Yale University
Michelle Teplensky, PhD, Boston University
Sophia Theodossiou, PhD, Boise State University
Lea Winter, PhD, Yale University

"Our newest young researchers are engaged in high risk-high reward work that over the next four years will address a broad range of problems, from creating vaccines that match immunity at the pace of viral mutation to synthesizing ammonia at room temperature and pressure for global fertilizer production to designing tools that detect cell-specific patterns of RNA modification, and more. We are excited to welcome each of these outstanding scientists into the Beckman 'family,' to help launch these extremely creative projects, and to see them reach their full potential," shared Dr. Anne Hultgren, Executive Director of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.

About the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation
Located in Irvine, California, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation supports researchers and nonprofit research institutions in making the next generation of breakthroughs in chemistry and the life sciences. Founded in 1977 by 20th century scientific instrumentation pioneer Dr. Arnold O. Beckman, the Foundation supports United States institutions and young scientists whose creative, high-risk, and interdisciplinary research will lead to innovations and new tools and methods for scientific discovery. For more information, visit beckman-foundation.org.