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Naveen Reddy Astronomer Awarded Sloan Research Fellowship

UC Riverside’s Naveen Reddy studies distant galaxies and their evolution in cosmic time

Riverside, California, Feb 21,2013
Iqbal Pittalwala

. – Naveen Reddy, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Riverside, has been awarded a prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a philanthropic, not-for-profit grant-making institution based in New York City.

Reddy, who joined UC Riverside in 2011, specializes in the physics of the early universe, and extragalactic astronomy. He is especially interested in distant galaxies, their evolution in cosmic time, and the nature of heavy-element production in these galaxies. Currently, he is working on several projects aimed at understanding the history of star formation and buildup of stellar mass in the universe.

“It is a great honor to receive this award and the support of the Sloan Foundation for my research,” Reddy said. “This recognition will help expand my research group’s study of faint galaxies in the distant universe.”

Reddy joins 125 other outstanding U.S. and Canadian researchers as recipients of Sloan Research Fellowships for 2013. Awarded annually since 1955, the fellowships are given to early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as rising stars, the next generation of scientific leaders. This year’s fellows are drawn from 61 colleges and universities across the United States and Canada.

“The Sloan Research Fellows are the best of the best among young scientists,” said Dr. Paul L. Joskow, the president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “If you want to know where the next big scientific breakthrough will come from, look to these extraordinary men and women. The foundation is proud to support them during this pivotal stage of their careers.”

After receiving his doctoral degree from Caltech in 2006, Reddy held postdoctoral appointments at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. His list of awards and honors include: Tinsley Visiting Scholar, University of Texas, Austin, 2011; Hubble Fellowship, 2008-2011; and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2000-2003.

Administered and funded by the Sloan Foundation, the Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded in eight scientific fields—chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, evolutionary and computational molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences, and physics. Winners are selected through close cooperation with the scientific community. To qualify, candidates must first be nominated by their fellow scientists and are subsequently selected by an independent panel of senior scholars. Fellows receive $50,000 to be used to further their research.

Naveen Reddy assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UC Riverside. My research interests include galaxy formation and evolution, multi-wavelength star formation indicators, stellar populations and dust properties of high redshift galaxies, and the connection between galaxies and the inter-galactic medium.