Pehlevan, Glassman, Idreos, McColl awarded 2023 Sloan Research Fellowships

Four faculty from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have been awarded 2023 Sloan Research Fellowships.

Cengiz Pehlevan, Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics, Elena Glassman, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Stratos Idreos, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science, and Kaighin McColl, Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and of Environmental Science and Engineering, are among the 125 early-career researchers recognized by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Glassman and Idreos were both recognized in the field of computer science, while Pehlevan was recognized in neuroscience and McColl in Earth system science.

Pehlevan, whose group studies theoretical neuroscience and neural computation, joined SEAS in 2019 following four years as a research scientist in the neuroscience group at the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Biology. A former Swartz Fellow at Harvard, he received a doctorate in physics from Brown University and undergraduate degrees in physics and electrical engineering from Bogazici University in Turkey.

Glassman also joined SEAS in 2019. Her research group studies augmenting human intelligence with computation. She received her B.S. in Electrical Science and Engineering, her M.Eng in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.

Idreos directs the Data Systems Laboratory at SEAS and was recently promoted to full professor with tenure. He completed his undergraduate studies and master’s degree at Technical University of Crete in Greece, and his Ph.D. at the University of Amsterdam. He joined SEAS in 2014.

McColl, whose research group uses numerical models and observations to study the terrestrial water cycle and its effects on weather and climate, joined the SEAS faculty in 2018. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Melbourne and Ph.D. at MIT.

SEAS faculty members to receive a Sloan Research Fellowship in recent years include: Julia Mundy, Assistant Professor of Physics and Applied Physics in 2022; Finale Doshi-Velez, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science, and Yaron Singer, Associate Professor in Computer Science, both in 2018.

Awarded annually since 1955, the fellowship identifies the next generation of leaders in the fields of computer science, neuroscience, chemistry, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, and physics. Independent panels of senior scholars select recipients on the basis of a candidate’s research accomplishments, creativity, and potential to become a leader in their field. This year’s cohort represents 54 U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities and includes seven faculty from Harvard. Sloan Research Fellows receive a two-year, $75,000 fellowship to advance their research.