Each year, the Albert P. Sloan Foundation selects the top early-career researchers in the U.S. and Canada “who have the potential to revolutionize their fields of study.”
This year, that list includes Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at UChicago Asst. Prof. Chong Liu.
Liu, who joined PME in 2018 as a Neubauer Family Assistant Professor, was one of five UChicago faculty members named 2024 Sloan Fellows.
Awarded since 1955, the two-year Sloan Fellowships are one of the most competitive and prestigious awards available to early-career researchers. This year’s winners, announced Feb. 20, will receive two-year fellowships in the amount of $75,000 to further their innovative research.
“This is a great honor and a great recognition,” Liu said. “I plan to use these funds to continue my current research on understanding the physical and chemical processes at solid-liquid interfaces for sustainable separation.”
Liu received her PhD in materials science and engineering at Stanford University in 2015 and her BS in chemistry from Fudan University. She was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford before joining PME.
PME Founding Dean Matthew Tirrell, the D. Gale Johnson Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, nominated Liu for the honor based on the caliber of her research.
“Chong Liu has devised very innovative approaches for extracting dilute ions from water and has applied them to the acquisition of important scarce resources such as lithium or rare earth elements,” said Tirrell, who was named a Sloan Fellow himself in 1982.
“I can attest from my own receipt of a Sloan Fellowship as an assistant professor more than forty years ago, that this recognition provides not only enabling material support for one’s research, but also a motivating vote of confidence,” he said.
Liu has previously received the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Early Career Research Program Award and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award.
In addition to Liu and Tirrell, other PME faculty who have been named Sloan Fellows include Hannes Bernien, Margaret Gardel, Liang Jiang, Aashish Clerk, Greg Engel, Aaron Esser-Kahn, Jiwoong Park and Dmitri Talapin.