Caroline Runyan, an assistant professor in the Dietrich School's Department of Neuroscience, has been named a 2019 Searle Scholar. The Searle Scholars Program makes grants to selected universities and research centers to support the independent research of exceptional young faculty in the biomedical sciences and chemistry who have recently been appointed as assistant professors on a tenure-track appointment. Runyan is one of 15 scientists selected for recognition this year.
The Searle Scholars Program makes grants to selected universities and research centers to support the independent research of exceptional young faculty in the biomedical sciences and chemistry who have recently been appointed as assistant professors on a tenure-track appointment. The Program’s Scientific Director appoints an Advisory Board of eminent scientists who choose the Scholars based on rigorous standards aimed at finding the most creative talent interested in pursuing an academic research career. This year, 195 applications were considered from nominations by 137 universities and research institutions.The new Searle Scholars are pursuing fundamental, ground-breaking research in chemistry and the biomedical sciences and will each receive an award of $300,000 in flexible funding to support their work over the next three years.
Since 1981, 617 scientists have been named Searle Scholars. Including this year, the Program has awarded more than $174 million. Seventy-nine Searle Scholars have been inducted into the National Academy of Sciences. Nineteen Scholars have been recognized with a MacArthur Fellowship, known as the “genius grant,” and a Searle Scholar has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.