IU geneticist receives $50,000 award

Matthew Hahn, an IU geneticist, was elected as a 2010 fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He will receive a $50,000 award over the course of two years.

Hahn has been an assistant professor of biology and informatics at IU-Bloomington since 2005.

Hahn uses information technology to find meaning in data sets provided by biologists. He and the members of his lab are developing computational and statistical tools to analyze whole genomes to find information about things such as gene families, human genome history and the evolution of certain genes.

“The Sloan Research Fellowships support the work of exceptional young researchers early in their academic careers and often at pivotal stages in their work,” said Paul L. Joskow, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in an IU press release.

The fellowship is for young faculty scientists with great potential. There are 118 American and Canadian fellows this year in areas from mathematics to molecular biology to neuroscience to economics.

“Matt is one of those rare scientists that can operate at the cutting edge of two disciplines: biology and informatics,” said biology department Chairman Roger Innes in the release.

The foundation supplies grants to support original research and education in the areas of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and economics.

— MJ Slaby