UBC biologist recognized as one of North America’s top young scientists

UBC biologist Dr. Ben Matthews is a recipient of a 2021 Sloan Research Fellowship, an award which celebrates top early career researchers.

Matthews heads a UBC lab that studies the genetics, genomics and behavior of mosquitoes, which are considered some of the deadliest animals in the world due to their ability to transmit the pathogens that cause malaria, Zika, dengue and yellow fever.

An assistant professor in the Comparative Physiology Group of the department of Zoology at UBC, Dr. Matthews is also a member of the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, the Biodiversity Research Centre and the Genome Science and Technology training program.

Awarded this year to 128 of the brightest young scientists across the U.S. and Canada, the Sloan Research Fellowships are one of the most competitive and prestigious awards available to early career researchers. They are often seen as a marker of the quality of an institution’s science faculty and proof of an institution’s success in attracting the most promising junior researchers to its ranks. Since the first Sloan Research Fellowships were awarded in 1955, 46 faculty from University of British Columbia have received a Sloan Research Fellowship—including at least 23 at UBC Science.