Guggenheim Fellowship
Luay Nakhleh was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship on April 11 under the category of natural sciences in organismic biology and ecology. Nakhleh is an associate professor of computer science, ecology and evolutionary biology, and biochemistry and cell biology.
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation selects approximately 220 scholars, artists and scientists, out of the 3,500 to 4,000 applicants per year to be fellowship recipients, according to the foundation's website.
"Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts," the foundation's website states. "Guggenheim Fellowships are grants to selected individuals made for a minimum of six months and a maximum of 12 months."
Nakhleh said he applied for the fellowship last December, submitting a curriculum vitae, four references and a three-page research proposal. The research proposal Nakhleh submitted centered around new methods and models for constructing evolutionary history and methods for understanding network evolution.
Nakhleh said he plans to use the $45,000 he was awarded to conduct research and travel to conferences.
"It's an extremely competitive thing, so it is definitely extremely exciting to win it," Nakhleh said. "It is an honor to be among the group of recipients, [which] has ... lots of Nobel [Prize] laureates."
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