Yaojun Zhang and Xiongyi Huang among 126 scholars selected for prestigious fellowship

Two Johns Hopkins assistant professors, biophysicist Yaojun “Jun” Zhang, and chemist Xiongyi Huang have been named 2025 Sloan Research Fellows by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. These two-year, $75,000 fellowships are awarded to early-career scientists in the U.S. and Canada who show strong potential to be leaders in their fields. Huang and Zhang are among 126 scholars recognized as fellows this year. The fellowship is extremely prestigious and competitive, with more than 1,000 nominations each year.

Yaojun Zhang holds a joint appointment in the departments of Biophysics and Physics & Astronomy, where she conducts theoretical and computational research to understand the behavior of biomolecules and their assemblies across scales. Dr. Zhang’s lab studies biomolecular condensates and liquid-liquid phase separation. Discoveries in this emerging field improve mankind’s understanding of intracellular organization and its connection to the health and disease of all living beings. “Biomolecular phase separation is a relatively new field, where ongoing discoveries bring fresh opportunities and excitement,” Zhang said. Being named a Sloan Research Fellow is very encouraging. I hope this recognition will increase my lab’s visibility and create more opportunities to collaborate with other labs in the field.”

Xiongyi Huang, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, researches what he describes as “a fundamental challenge in protein engineering and biosynthesis:” enabling natural enzymes to catalyze artificial reactions. Huang said that he felt honored to be named a Sloan Research Fellow, thanking his lab members for their hard work. “This recognition would not have been possible without the dedication of my group members. They are the true heroes behind this achievement.”