UW–Madison researchers win prestigious Sloan fellowships

Two University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers are among 126 scientists across the United States and Canada selected as Sloan Research Fellows.

The fellowships, awarded annually since 1955, honor exceptional scientists whose creativity, innovation and research accomplishments make them stand out as future leaders in their fields.

UW–Madison’s 2025 Sloan Fellows are James Roberts Crall, assistant professor of entomology, and Sharon Yixuan Li, assistant professor of computer sciences.

Crall studies bees, pollinators that are key parts of food systems and plant communities. His lab employs computational tools to describe and explain social behavior and answer questions about how animals interact with each other and their environments.

Li focuses on the theoretical and algorithmic foundations of safe and reliable artificial intelligence. Li Lab works with large language models — like those that power AI tools like ChatGPT — to understand how they work, when they fail, and to effectively align them with human needs.

“The Sloan Research Fellows represent the very best of early-career science, embodying the creativity, ambition and rigor that drive discovery forward,” says Adam F. Falk, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “These extraordinary scholars are already making significant contributions, and we are confident they will shape the future of their fields in remarkable ways.”

Founded in 1934, the Sloan Foundation is a not-for-profit institution dedicated to improving the welfare of all through the advancement of scientific knowledge.

Sloan Fellows are chosen in seven fields — chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience and physics — based on nomination and consideration by fellow scientists. The 2025 cohort comes from 51 institutions and a field that included more than 1,000 nominees. Winners receive a two-year, $75,000 fellowship that can be used flexibly to advance their research.

The Sloan Foundation has tapped 120 UW–Madison scientists for the prestigious fellowship since the program began. Among current and former Sloan Fellows, 58 have won a Nobel Prize, 72 have been awarded the National Medal of Science, 17 have won the Fields Medal in mathematics and 24 have won the John Bates Clark Medal in economics.