Scientist Affiliated with MBL Named 2026 Beckman Young Investigator

Today the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation announced the selection of its 2026 class of Beckman Young Investigator Awardees from U.S. colleges and universities. 

The awardees exemplify the Foundation's mission of supporting the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments, and materials that will open new avenues of research in science. Twelve scientists were selected from a pool of approximately 400 applicants after a three-part review led by a panel of scientific experts. This year's award offers $600,000 in funding over four years to each researcher. 

Congratulations to Dakota McCoy, assistant professor at the University of Chicago, a 2025 Whitman Scientist, and course director at the Marine Biological Laboratory, on her induction as a Beckman Young Investigator for her project "Chemistry and nanoscience: new tools for coral reef resilience." McCoy holds lab space at the MBL and will the University of Chicago September Term course, Light & Color in the Ocean, this fall.