It was announced today that Assistant Professor of Chemistry Robert J. Gilliard, Jr. has been awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation 2021 Sloan Research Fellowship. 
According to the Sloan Foundation:

The first Sloan Research Fellowships were awarded in 1955. Since that time, more than five thousand outstanding early-career researchers have received the award. Originally awarded in physics, chemistry, and mathematics, the Sloan Research Fellowships have expanded over the decades to include the support of early-career researchers in a total of eight scientific and technical fields.

Since the inception of the Sloan Fellowship, faculty from the University of Virginia have been awarded 36 fellowships.  Of those, six have been in the field of Chemistry. Prof. Gilliard is the first UVa Chemist to be awarded this prestigious fellowship since 1999 when it was awarded to current faculty member Prof. Cassandra Fraser.

The Gilliard Research Group focuses its efforts on the synthesis, structure, reactivity and applications of main-group and late transition metal species. This award and the many other accolades Prof. Gilliard has recieved in the past year is being highlighted by A&S News.