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Kleiner Selected as Sloan Fellow

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The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced today that Ralph E. Kleiner, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, has been selected as a 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in Chemistry. The announcement states that, “These two-year fellowships are awarded yearly to 126 researchers in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field.” The 2019 Fellows will receive fellowships in the amount of $70,000.

Kleiner is one of ten Princeton faculty to be named a 2019 Sloan Fellow across the disciplines of Chemistry, Computational and Evolutionary Molecular Biology, Computer Science, Economics, Mathematics, Neuroscience and Physics.

Ralph E. Kleiner, Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Photo by C. Todd Reichart

Upon learning of the award, Kleiner said, “I am grateful to the Sloan Foundation for recognizing our work in unraveling the complex landscape of chemical modifications on cellular RNA.”

The focus of the Kleiner lab is to decipher the chemical complexity of cellular RNA. Methods include developing and employing approaches on the interface of chemistry and biology to investigate the biological function of epigenetic RNA modifications and the relationship of RNA chemistry to cellular mechanisms regulating normal and disease cell physiology.

According to its website, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation “makes grants primarily to support original research and education related to science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and economics. The Foundation believes that these fields—and the scholars and practitioners who work in them—are chief drivers of the nation’s health and prosperity. The Foundation also believes that a reasoned, systematic understanding of the forces of nature and society, when applied inventively and wisely, can lead to a better world for all.”

The foundation was established in 1934 by industrialist Alfred P. Sloan Jr., former President and Chairman of the Board of General Motors.

The story detailing all 2019 Princeton awardees may be found here:
https://www.princeton.edu/news/2019/02/19/ten-princeton-faculty-members-awarded-sloan-research-fellowships 

The complete list of the 2019 Sloan Research Fellows may be found here:
https://sloan.org/fellowships/2019-Fellows