The Sloan Foundation has announced this year’s 126 Sloan Research Fellows! These scholars are our prospective next generation of scientific leaders in the U.S. and Canada. Winners receive $75,000 over a two-year period to use for any cost required to support their research. We are happy to say there are six fellows from UCLA this year, two in physics, two in mathematics, one in economics, one in neuroscience– one of these fellows being our Hao Cao.
Hao Cao studies the origin, dynamics, and impacts of planetary magnetic fields. Cao and his team analyze measurements from the NASA Juno mission to understand the deep interior and the space environment of Jupiter and its Galilean satellites. In preparation for the upcoming Europa Clipper mission, he is leading an interdisciplinary team to investigate the coupled dynamics of Europa’s space environment, ice shell, and subsurface ocean. In addition, he and the UCLA MAG Lab are developing a temperature-controlled fluxgate magnetometer system for future space exploration, with application to lunar/Mars landers and space missions to the Uranus and Neptune systems. He was awarded a NASA Group Achievement Award for his contribution to the magnetic field investigation of the Cassini mission to the Saturn System.
Congratulations Hao Cao and all our 2025 UCLA Sloan Research Fellows!
A full list of all 2025 Sloan Research Fellows can be read HERE on the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation page.