Three young professors at UC Santa Barbara are among this year’s winners of prestigious Sloan Research Fellowships announced by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellows nationally are engaged in research at the frontiers of physics, chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, and neuroscience.

The UCSB winners this year are Jeffrey W. Bode, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry; Sergei Gukov, associate professor of physics and mathematics; and Tommaso Treu, assistant professor of physics.

Bode received his fellowship for discovering new classes of chemical reaction that allow for the preparation of a wide range of valuable organic molecules in a highly efficient and environmentally friendly manner. His new catalysts and processes could be used in the discovery and manufacture of new drugs.

Bode completed his doctorate at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland, in 2001. He joined UCSB’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2003, following a two-year postdoctoral fellowship with Keisuke Suzuki, professor at the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science of the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Gukov’s research is in theoretical particle physics, string theory, and related areas of mathematics, such as geometry and topology. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University in 2001. Gukov was a Clay Mathematics Institute Long-Term Prize Fellow at Harvard University from 2001 to 2004, and an associate professor at Caltech from 2004 to 2005. He joined the UCSB faculty in 2006.

Treu’s research is focused on understanding galaxy formation, with an emphasis on the role of dark matter and super massive black holes. He received his Ph.D. from the Scuola Normale Superiore, in Pisa, Italy, in 2001, and did postdoctoral research at Caltech and UCLA. He joined UCSB in 2004.

The 116 new Sloan Fellows were selected from among hundreds of highly qualified scientists in the early stages of their careers across the nation. Selection was based on their exceptional promise to contribute to the advancement of knowledge. In the 52 years that the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has been awarding research fellowships, 35 former Sloan Fellows have won Nobel Prizes.

The Sloan Fellowships come with awards of $45,000 over a two-year period. Funds are awarded directly to the Fellow’s institution and may be used by the Fellow for such purposes as equipment, technical assistance, professional travel, trainee support, or any other activity directly related to the Fellow’s research.