Assistant Professor Wyatt Shields
The Pew Charitable Trust announced today that Assistant Professor Wyatt Shields has been selected as a 2022 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences.
Shields – who is based in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at CU Boulder – said the recognition was a great honor to him and his research team.
“This award is a great honor and validation to the high-risk, high-reward research that my students have committed themselves to the last two and a half years,” he said.
The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences provides funding to young investigators of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of human health. The program makes grants to selected academic institutions to support the independent research of outstanding individuals who are early-career junior faculty. Shields was selected from among 197 nominations submitted by leading U.S. academic and research institutions to receive four years of funding to invest in exploratory research.
Shields and his research group are interested in biosensing and drug delivery. In addition to this fellowship, he was also recently awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER award for a project that seeks to develop a new method of early identification of disease biomarkers. Shields was also selected for the prestigious Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research in 2022.
Chemical and Biological Engineering Department Chair Will Medlin said that earning three very prestigious awards for young career faculty in a single cycle was an impressive accomplishment.
“The level of success that Wyatt has already achieved is extraordinary,” he said. “Winning three prestigious awards within the period of a few months reflects both the high quality of his previous work and his exciting ideas for the future.”