Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Names 2 UC Irvine Faculty as 2026 Sloan Research Fellows

Prestigious distinction recognizes promising early-career scientists

March 2, 2026 – The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has named two University of California, Irvine faculty members as 2026 Sloan Research Fellows. Herdeline Ann “Digs” Ardoña, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and Seunghyun Sim, assistant professor of chemistry, are among 126 early-career researchers to be recognized by the foundation this year.

Ardoña leads her research group in the development of biomolecular systems and biomaterials capable of uniquely transmitting and converting optical, electronic, chemical and mechanical cues at cellular interfaces. Engineered materials created in her laboratory can be used to direct and modulate cellular behavior, probe electromechanical biological processes, and serve as tissue models to study diseases and screen pharmaceuticals.

Her team recently designed molecules that assemble into a matrix on a specialized surface, forming a material on which lab-grown cardiac tissue can flourish. This assembly can then be “paced by light,” a technique in which the tissue is irradiated with pulsing light to induce heart beats at a matched frequency such as 2 hertz. The platform could help better study how heart disease progresses and which drugs offer the best treatment options.

“I am honored to have been selected as a fellow by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,” Ardoña said. “I am forever grateful to our past and current lab members whose accomplishments are recognized by this fellowship. We are excited to continue developing macromolecular biomaterials that direct or probe signal transduction processes in excitable cells.”

A native of Valenzuela, the Philippines, Ardoña earned a B.S. in chemistry at the University of the Philippines Diliman in 2011 and completed a Ph.D. in chemistry at Johns Hopkins University in 2017, after which she spent three years as an American Chemical Society Irving S. Sigal Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University. She holds joint appointments in UC Irvine’s Department of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Chemistry.

Ardoña is a National Science Foundation CAREER Award recipient, a Hellman Fellow and a Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow. In 2025, she was an ACS Polymeric Materials: Science & Engineering Division Early Investigator honoree and was named one of that year’s Talented 12 by the Chemical & Engineering News.

Vasan Venugopalan, professor and chair of the UC Irvine Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, who nominated Ardoña for the Sloan Fellowship, said: “Professor Ardoña is one of the brightest and most promising early-career researchers I have met in my academic career. Her work is destined to make a positive impact in chemistry and chemical engineering, with applications in the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.”

Sim was recognized by the Sloan Foundation for work in merging biological components with synthetic polymers, establishing new design principles to construct materials that seamlessly incorporate living cell functions and responses. She is also co-leading investigations in UC Irvine’s Center for Complex and Active Materials into the creation of out-of-equilibrium living and soft material systems.

Her lab also develops engineered spores for programming functionalities in materials. Because spores can endure harsh conditions such as dehydration, nutrient limitation, organic solvents and oxidative stress, spore-containing materials could be produced in a dried form and used instead of enzymes or chemical catalysts, creating a new class of materials that are scalable, environmentally benign, recyclable and renewable.

“I am grateful to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for selecting me as a 2026 fellow,” Sim said. “I appreciate the contributions of my team and the support I receive from fellow faculty members at UC Irvine.”

In 2012, she earned B.S. degrees in chemistry and biological sciences at South Korea’s Seoul National University; Sim completed a Ph.D. in chemistry and biotechnology at the University of Tokyo in 2017. Prior to coming to UC Irvine, she was a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech.

“Professor Sim is a pioneer in a field that brings chemistry and biology together to create entirely new materials and substances with a variety of functions,” said Alan Heyduk, professor and chair of the UC Irvine Department of Chemistry, who nominated Sim for the Sloan Fellowship. “To be recognized by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is validation of the value our society puts on cutting-edge scientific research.”

Awarded to promising young scientists in the United States and Canada, Sloan Research Fellowships provide recipients $75,000 to be used at their discretion for equipment and laboratory improvements, conference travel expenses, paying staff and data services. Among the most competitive and prestigious awards available to early-career researchers, Sloan Research Fellowships are seen as an indicator of the quality of an institution’s science faculty and proof of success in attracting the most promising junior researchers to its ranks.

Since UC Irvine was founded in 1965, 66 of its faculty members have received Sloan Research Fellowships, including this year’s two honorees.

– Brian Bell