Six young faculty members named Sloan Fellows

Six young early career researchers at UC Berkeley have been awarded a prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship, granted annually to “honor exceptional researchers at U.S. and Canadian educational institutions whose creativity, innovation and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of leaders,” according to an announcement issued today (Feb. 18).

The six are among 126 young researchers from 51 institutions across the U.S. and Canada to receive the fellowship this year. The fellowships have been awarded annually since 1955, and to date, UC Berkeley faculty have received 312, including this year’s winners.

The 2025 UC Berkeley fellows are:

Natacha Crooks, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science. Crooks studies the reliability of large-scale distributed computing systems and databases. These systems, which power most modern data processing infrastructure, are subject to hardware failures and malicious attacks. Crooks is developing new solutions to increase their robustness without sacrificing their performance.

Chen Lian, assistant professor of economics. Lian’s work focuses on macroeconomics and its intersection with behavioral and financial economics. He investigates business cycles and macroeconomic stabilization policies, examining how bounded rationality and financial frictions shape these dynamics.

Tony Feng, assistant professor of mathematics. Feng works on theoretical mathematics at the interface of number theory, algebraic geometry, topology and representation theory. He is especially interested in the connections and analogies between the different mathematical structures populating these disciplines.

Song Mei, assistant professor of statistics and affiliate of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Mei’s research centers on the mathematical foundations of artificial intelligence, focusing on the analysis and development of novel algorithms to enhance the statistical and computational efficiency of modern machine learning systems.

James Nuñez, assistant professor of molecular and cell biology. Nuñez studies epigenetics — the chemical tags on DNA that can control which genes are turned on or off in human cells. Nuñez has pioneered CRISPR technologies that allow researchers to change epigenetic patterns on DNA. He aims to apply his tools in neurons, which encode highly specialized epigenetics that are altered in many neurological diseases.

Raúl Briceño, assistant professor of physics and faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Briceño specializes in nuclear and particle physics. His research employs analytical and computational methods to study nuclear reactions from the fundamental theory of the strong nuclear force, quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Using lattice QCD, a powerful computational technique, he has helped enable the direct determination of previously inaccessible nuclear reactions occurring in particle accelerators and extreme cosmic environments. This research not only provides further confirmation of the reliability of QCD in describing the formation of everyday matter but also helps identify potential signals of phenomena beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.

Each recipient receives a two-year, $75,000 fellowship which can be used flexibly to advance the fellow’s research. Fellowships are awarded in seven fields: chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience and physics.

“The Sloan Research Fellows represent the very best of early-career science, embodying the creativity, ambition and rigor that drive discovery forward,” said Adam F. Falk, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in today’s announcement. “These extraordinary scholars are already making significant contributions, and we are confident they will shape the future of their fields in remarkable ways.”

Founded in 1934 by industrialist Alfred P. Sloan Jr., the Foundation disburses approximately $80 million in grants each year in four broad areas: direct support of research in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and economics; initiatives to increase the quality and diversity of scientific institutions and the science workforce; projects to develop or leverage technology to empower research; and efforts to enhance and deepen public engagement with science and scientists.