Three faculty members from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science are among five university researchers selected as 2026 Sloan Research Fellowship recipients. The prestigious two-year, $75,000 fellowship honors early-career scholars recognized as emerging leaders in their respective fields.
The SCS honorees — Aayush Jain, Aditi Raghunathan and Jun-Yan Zhu — are part of a cohort of 123 fellows chosen from more than 1,000 nominations nationwide. The fellowship funding will support their ongoing and future research initiatives.
Two additional CMU faculty members were also named fellows: Christopher Eur, assistant professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, and Arun Kumar Kuchibhotla, associate professor in the Department of Statistics and Data Science.
Aayush Jain, an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department, focuses on theoretical and applied cryptography and its connections to broader areas of theoretical computer science. His research explores the mathematical foundations that underpin modern cryptographic systems, with particular emphasis on discovering new sources of computational hardness. Jain’s work seeks to bolster the long-term security of encrypted computation and address key challenges in post-quantum cryptography. He also mentors graduate students in foundational cryptographic theory.
Aditi Raghunathan, assistant professor in the Computer Science Department with affiliations in the Machine Learning Department and Language Technologies Institute, studies the reliability and safety of artificial intelligence systems. Her research examines how and why AI systems fail and develops methods to make them more robust, accurate and dependable in real-world applications. She leads the AI Reliability Lab, which advances trustworthy and aligned AI through rigorous analysis and principled design. Her work has received recognition at leading academic conferences and contributes to responsible AI development and deployment.
Jun-Yan Zhu, the Michael B. Donohue Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Robotics in the Robotics Institute, works at the intersection of generative AI and human creativity. His research develops human-centered generative AI frameworks that provide creators with greater control over outputs, adaptability for new use cases and mechanisms for fair credit when their work informs AI training. Zhu directs the Generative Intelligence Lab, where researchers explore how generative models can empower creators and bridge digital and physical experiences.
The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which supports groundbreaking research across science, technology and economics.
