Biologists Receive Sloan Fellowships

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

AUSTIN, Texas—Evolutionary biologist Sara Sawyer and neuroscientist Ila Fiete, two young faculty members at The University of Texas at Austin, have been named 2009 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellows.

Dr. Sara Sawyer Dr. Ila Fiete

Dr. Sara Sawyer, assistant professor of molecular genetics and microbiology, studies the molecular “fossil record” left by historical viral epidemics in the human genome. The goal of her research is to learn about natural strategies that have been successful at beating viruses in the past, and how these might be exploited in the fight against modern viral attacks. She uses a broad array of techniques from molecular evolution, virology, experimental evolution, and comparative genomics to look at human and primate genes that encode inhibitors of viral infection, including HIV.

Through modeling and theoretical analysis, Dr. Ila Fiete, assistant professor of neurobiology, studies how large collections of neurons in the brain can give rise to complex behaviors. One of the goals of her research is to uncover the principles of neural organization that allow songbirds to learn how to sing and rodents to navigate in the dark.

Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually to scientists conducting research at the frontiers of physics, chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics and neuroscience.

The two-year, $50,000 awards are meant to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise.