Rowland Institute announces new junior fellows

The Rowland Institute for Science, an interdisciplinary research institute in Cambridge that merged with Harvard in 2002,

has announced its selection of three new junior fellows. These three researchers have been chosen to perform independent experimental research for five years, with full institutional support and access to the institute’s outstanding technical and scientific resources.

The fellows, and their research, include Kristen Lewis, teaching fellow in organismic and evolutionary biology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (plant biochemistry and organismal interactions); Frank Vollmer, Rockefeller University (molecular analysis by micro-optical resonances); and Peer Fischer, Cornell University (chiroptical spectroscopy and chiral discrimination).

“Our fellows are unusual people, with both good ideas and good hands,” said Frans Spaepen, director of the institute. “We consider candidates in all the natural sciences, as well as in engineering, with special attention to interdisciplinary opportunities and the development of new experimental methods. Fellows are selected for their scientific achievement, their creativity, their resourcefulness as experimentalists, and their ability to work independently. We were very pleased with the response to our announcement, both in the breadth and the quality of the applicants. We expect even more response as this unique program becomes known in the scientific community.”

The new fellows join current Rowland junior fellows Zvonimir Dogic (complex fluids) and Jiwoong Park (nanosensors and nanoelectronics). The institute aims to eventually appoint a total of 10 fellows.