Recognizing U of T’s rising stars

The Cannes Film Festival may have the Caméra d'Or for debut filmmakers - but the research world has the Sloan Research Fellowships. And, of the eight fellowships awarded to faculty at Canadian universities this year, six are going to University of Toronto scholars. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has named U of T's Artur Izmaylov, Natalie Enright Jerger, Julie Lefebvre, Jacob Tsimerman, Daniel Wigdor and Hau-tieng Wu among 126 oustanding young researchers from across Canada and the United States. The US $50,000 prizes are given to early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as among the next generation of scientific leaders. "Carrying on a research agenda today means building great teams," said Wigdor (pictured at right), a researcher with U of T's computer science department. Read about U of T's top-ranked computer science department.) "I hope this recognition will serve as a beacon to continue to attract talent to the lab, and that my team of talented and hard-working undergraduate and graduate students, post docs, staff, and collaborators both within and outside U of'T today, sees this as a wonderful vindication of many late nights." The six U of'T Fellows are exploring a wide range of topics: Artur Izmaylov (department of Chemistry, department of physical & environmental sciences (UTSC)) focuses on understanding and modeling chemical dynamics involving multiple electronic states in molecules and materials. Such processes are ubiquitous in solar energy harvesting, photoactive protein functioning and catalytic reactions on metallic surfaces.