University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography scientist Elizabeth Harvey has been awarded a prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship.

Presented by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the fellowship is awarded to early-career scholars representing the most promising scientific researchers. Harvey is joined by 125 other 2019 Sloan Fellows from across the U.S. and Canada. She will receive $70,000 over two years, which may be spent on expenses supportive of her research.

Harvey’s research focuses on plankton ecology, with a particular focus on how interactions between individual plankton can influence larger-scale patterns in the species’ abundance, distribution and physiology. She earned her Ph.D. in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island in 2013, and joined the UGA Skidaway Institute faculty in 2015. Harvey is also an assistant professor in the UGA Department of Marine Sciences.

“It was thrilling to be nominated by my department, but getting the fellowship signals that you, as a researcher, are doing something right,” Harvey said. “The Sloan Fellowship allows researchers to ask questions that are a little more risky or open-ended. I will be able to conduct some research with new colleagues to begin to generate and solidify collaborative research. Also, it will help support undergraduate and graduate students in conducting meaningful scientific research.”

In addition to Harvey, a second UGA scientist, cellular biologist Rachel Roberts-Galbraith, is also a fellowship recipient. Harvey and Roberts-Galbraith represent just the 12th and 13th Sloan recipients from UGA since the organization began its fellowship program in 1955.

“Sloan Fellowships are one of the most prestigious monetary awards in the country for faculty in the earlier stages of their careers, and I congratulate Elizabeth and Rachel for being recognized in this remarkable way,” said David Lee, UGA vice president for research. “This signifies the quality of young faculty that UGA is recruiting, something we can all take pride in.”

Sloan Fellowships are open to scholars in eight scientific and technical fields: chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences and physics. Candidates are nominated by fellow scientists, and winning fellows are selected by independent panels of senior scholars based on candidates’ research accomplishments, creativity and potential to become a leader in her or his field. Since 1955, Sloan Research Fellows have gone on to win 45 Nobel Prizes.