Our People—ASCBers Are 14 of 84 Early-Career ‘Faculty Scholars’ Named by HHMI-Simons-Gates Foundations

A new collaborative effort by three of America’s leading non-government funders of biomedical research to address “growing concern about the significant challenges that early-career scientists are facing” has named a first cohort of 84 early-career Faculty Scholars. Thirteen of the 84 are active ASCB members. A joint statement from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the Simons Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last week said that they have committed $84 million over five years to support the new Faculty Scholars. The individual supporting grants which include indirect costs, range from $600,000 to $1.8 million. Home institutions must allow the Faculty Scholars to devote 50% of their time to directing their research.

 

The ASCB members named as Faculty Scholars include:

      • Clifford Brangwynne, Princeton University
      • Elizabeth H. Chen, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center
      • Xin Chen, Johns Hopkins University
      • Alex Dunn, Stanford University
      • Adam Frost, Univeristy of California, San Francisco
      • Amy Gladfelter, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
      • Valentina Greco, Yale University
      • Coleen Murphy, Princeton University
      • Celeste Nelson, Princeton University
      • Jennifer Nemhauser, University of Washington
      • Clodagh O’Shea, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
      • 
Samara Reck-Peterson, University of California, San Diego
      • Jody Rosenblatt, University of Utah
      • Meng Wang, Baylor College of Medicine

 

 

“The career trajectory for early-career scientists has become much less certain as competition for grant support intensifies,” said the HHMI-Simons-Gates statement. “In the last two decades, the U.S. has witnessed a dramatic decline in the National Institutes of Health research award success rate for scientists, as well as a striking increase in the average age at which an investigator receives his or her first R01-equivalent grant.”

HHMI-Simons-Gates Faculty Scholars, Top, L-R, Clifford Brangwynne; Meng Wang; Adam Frost; Alex Dunn, photo Norbert van der Groben; Elizabeth H. Chen, photo Keith Weller; Samara Reck-Peterson. Bottom L-R, Jennifer Nemhauser; Valentina Greco; Amy Gladfelter; Coleen Murphy; Jody Rosenblatt; Clodagh O’Shea, photo Salk Institute. Not pictured, Celeste Nelson and Xin Chen.

 

About the Author:


John Fleischman was the ASCB Senior Science Writer from 2000 to 2016. Best unpaid perk of the job? Working with new grad students and Nobel Prize winners.