Leo Radzihovsky, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is the winner of a prestigious 1997 Sloan Research Fellowship.
Sloan fellowships are given to recognize and support young scientists' research projects during their early careers. The fellowship includes a $35,000 award.
"This is an extraordinarily competitive award, involving nominations for most of the best scientists of your generation from around the country," wrote Ralph Gomory, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The award should "convey a clear indication of the high esteem in which your past work and future potential are held by your fellow scientists," he said.
Only 100 of the fellowships are given each year from among several hundred nominations of top young scientists throughout the nation. Twenty-one Sloan fellows have gone on to receive Nobel prizes since the program began in 1955.
Radzihovsky, 30, has taught at ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä-Boulder since 1995. He was awarded a $200,000 CAREER award from the National Science Foundation in 1996. His wife, Lucy Pao, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, also received a $200,000 CAREER award in 1996.
Radzihovsky was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and emigrated to the United States with his family in 1980. He earned a bachelor's and a master's degree in four years from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he was valedictorian, and then a master's and doctorate in physics from Harvard. He held a perfect grade point average of 4.0 while earning all four of his college degrees.
He has received several other awards including the 1988 Apker National Award for the best undergraduate physics research in the country.
Radzihovsky teaches undergraduate classes and includes undergraduate students in his research. His research interests include the study of superconductivity, liquid crystals and phase transitions.
Prior to joining ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä-Boulder, Radzihovsky was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago and worked at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories and AT&T Bell Laboratories.