Two CCB Postdocs awarded 2024 Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowships

On April 23, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation announced the selection of its 2024 class of Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellows, individuals who underscore the Foundation's mission of supporting basic research in chemical sciences and chemical instrumentation. Awardees include Mason Lab postdoc Dan Laorenza and Lee Lab postdoc Paul Joseph Robinson. They were selected after a three-part review led by a panel of scientific experts.

The Foundation will award more than $4.3 million in funding over the next three years for 14 exceptional research fellows from 10 universities and research institutions. 

"The individuals selected as fellows for this program are doing research that is important and innovative, and will help introduce new methods, processes, and instrumentation to the scientific community," shared. Dr. Anne Hultgren, Executive Director of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. "We look forward to providing these exceptional young scientists with support as they transition to independent, impactful research careers. Congratulations to the 2024 class of Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellows!"

The Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship provides salary and research support to postdoctoral scholars with the highest potential for success in an independent academic career in the chemical sciences, and to assist in their moves from mentored yet independent researchers to tenure-track positions. Funds for 2024 awardees will be issued this summer and extend over a period of up to three years.

Robinson finished his Ph.D. at Columbia University, working with Prof. David Reichman. In his Ph.D., he developed and applied self-consistent cumulant Green's function approaches to model electron-phonon problems. He also formulated a wavefunction method for describing polarons in an ab initio set-up. He joined the Lee group to develop and apply periodic quantum chemistry methods to electrocatalysis problems.

Laorenza earned his Bachelors and Masters from Wesleyan University in 2017 and recieved his Ph.D. from MIT in 2023.  Working with Prof. Danna Freedman at MIT, Laorenza's research focused on the design, synthesis, and spectroscopic characterization of transition metal systems as molecular quantum bits. 

Pictures:

PJ Robinson

Dan Laorenza