UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Kimberly Lau, assistant professor in Penn State’s Department of Geosciences and an associate in the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, was recently selected to receive a 2023 Sloan Research Fellowship. Awarded since 1955 to the brightest young scientists across the United States and Canada, the two-year Sloan Fellowships are one of the most competitive and prestigious awards available to early-career researchers.
Lau is among the 126 members of the 2023 class of outstanding early-career researchers. The annual fellowships are awarded to scholars in seven scientific and technical fields. This year’s fellows were drawn from a diverse range of 54 institutions across the U.S. and Canada. Fellows receive a two-year, $75,000 research fellowship.
“Receiving this fellowship is a huge honor,” said Lau. “I've been very lucky to be supported by mentors and colleagues here at Penn State and at other institutions and to work with wonderful research collaborators. The graduate and undergraduate students and postdocs I work with are tremendous, and they really motivate me to keep trying to push research boundaries.”
Lau is a sedimentary geochemist who uses isotopes and modeling to understand the controls and feedbacks on biogeochemical cycles in Earth’s past. She investigates how environments and cycles of biogeochemical elements have changed in Earth’s oceans over geologic timescales. She is thrilled for the opportunity to explore new research directions using the Sloan Research Fellowship.
“The fellowship enables me to incorporate synchrotron analyses in my research,” said Lau. “It's a technique to characterize the geochemistry of sedimentary rocks that is new to me. I think that it will help us better understand the cycling of uranium in the oceans. And that's important to me, because looking at how uranium has changed through time is one of the main tools I use for understanding changes in the environment in Earth history.”
Before joining Penn State in July 2020, Lau was an assistant professor at the University of Wyoming and an Agouron Geobiology Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Riverside. She received her bachelor’s degree in geology and geophysics with honors from Yale University and her doctoral degree in geological sciences from Stanford University.
"Sloan Research Fellows are shining examples of innovative and impactful research,” said Adam F. Falk, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “We are thrilled to support their groundbreaking work and we look forward to following their continued success."
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a not-for-profit, mission-driven, grant-making institution dedicated to improving the welfare of all through the advancement of scientific knowledge. Founded in 1934 by industrialist Alfred P. Sloan Jr., the foundation disburses approximately $80 million in grants each year in four broad areas: direct support of research in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and economics; initiatives to increase the quality and diversity of scientific institutions and the science workforce; projects to develop or leverage technology to empower research; and efforts to enhance and deepen public engagement with science and scientists.