Seven Beckman Young Investigators and Five Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellows Win Six-Month Bridge Funding Awards to Sustain Research Programs

Seven Beckman Young Investigators and Five Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellows Win Six-Month Bridge Funding Awards to Sustain Research Programs News provided by Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation Feb 25, 2026, 11:30 ET Share this article Share to X Share this article Share to X Nearly $800,000 in Total Support Stabilizes Programs during Federal Funding Disruptions IRVINE, Calif. , Feb. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation awarded a total of $784,476 to 12 Beckman researchers through its 2026 Beckman Bridge Funding Awards, an initiative developed to sustain ongoing research through transitional funding gaps. The supplemental funding opportunity was open to Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellows in their final year of training, or one-year post-award, who are continuing research in their mentor lab or recently hired into academia. Additionally, the opportunity was open to Beckman Young Investigators in their final award year or No Cost Extension (NCE) period, or one to three years post-award, if they were continuing to work on Foundation-funded research. "These researchers are tackling a broad range of problems with amazing creativity, doing work that is both important and innovative in new methods, processes and instrumentation," said Dr. Anne Hultgren, Executive Director of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. "This bridge funding program will help to sustain the momentum of these outstanding researchers and provide critical support to continue their high-impact research programs." The following Beckman researchers will receive 2026 Beckman Bridge Funding Awards: BECKMAN YOUNG INVESTIGATORS (alpha ordered by last name) Margaret Byron, PhD 2021 Beckman Young Investigator The Pennsylvania State University Fluid dynamics of flexibility: deformable bio-structures for locomotion and sensing in complex flows Katherine Davis, PhD 2021 Beckman Young Investigator Emory University X-rays shine light on the synergy between metalloenzyme structure and electronics Tania Lupoli, PhD 2021 Beckman Young Investigator New York University Tuning glycosyltransferases to design synthetic bacterial cell surfaces Brett McGuire, PhD 2021 Beckman Young Investigator Massachusetts Institute of Technology Microwave Femtosecond Spectroscopy; Unlocking our View of the Molecular Universe Alison Wendlandt, PhD 2021 Beckman Young Investigator Massachusetts Institute of Technology Catalytic Tools to Edit Glycosidic Stereocenters: A radical approach to glycan synthesis Balyn Zaro, PhD 2021 Beckman Young Investigator University of California, San Francisco Bacterial mimicry of mammalian 'don't eat me' signals Yingjie Zhang, PhD 2021 Beckman Young Investigator University of Illinois 3D Atomic Scale Spectromicroscopy of Liquid-Solid Interfaces ARNOLD O. BECKMAN POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS (alpha ordered by last name) Jaehyeok Jin, PhD 2022 Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow Columbia University Multiscale Phase-Field Modeling of Next-Generation Energy Storage Materials Caitlin Randolph, PhD 2022 Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow Purdue University Microfluidics Assisted Mass Spectrometry based Artificially Intelligent Platform for Single Cell Lipidomics Jonathan Schultz, PhD 2023 Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow North Carolina Central University Distinguishing Molecular Electronic Coupling Pathways by Combining Nonlinear Spectroscopy and Machine Learning Jacob Spies, PhD 2022 Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow University of California, Berkeley Development of a Time-Resolved Solid-State High-Harmonic Generation Spectrometer for Probing Ultrafast Dynamics in Strongly Correlated Materials Samuel Thompson, PhD 2022 Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow Stanford University Expanding the synthetic potential in protein engineering with proteins that fold and function in water-immiscible solvents Bridge funding support is for six months. Awardees may be eligible to apply for a renewal if they continue to meet the requirements of the Beckman Bridge Funding Award. About the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation Located in Irvine, California, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation supports researchers and nonprofit research institutions in making the next generation of breakthroughs in chemistry and the life sciences. Founded in 1977 by 20 th century scientific instrumentation pioneer Dr. Arnold O. Beckman, the Foundation supports United States institutions and young scientists whose creative, high-risk, and interdisciplinary research will lead to innovations and new tools and methods for scientific discovery. For more information, visit beckman-foundation.org . SOURCE Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation 21 % more press release views with Request a Demo × Modal title