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

Nearly $640,000 in Total Support Stabilizes Programs during Federal Funding Disruptions

IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation awarded a total of $638,382 to 11 Beckman researchers during a second round of 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.

"During the first round of this bridge funding program, we saw that it could help to sustain the momentum of our outstanding researchers and provide critical support to continue their high-impact research programs," said Dr. Anne Hultgren, Executive Director of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. "They are doing amazing, innovative work which is important and necessary and covers a broad spectrum of problems. Extending the program to offer another round of funding will contribute in a meaningful way to the creation of new methods, processes and instrumentation, and we're proud to be part of that."

The following Beckman researchers will receive 2026 Beckman Bridge Funding Awards during the second round of the program:

BECKMAN YOUNG INVESTIGATORS (alpha ordered by last name)

Beau Alward, PhD
2021 Beckman Young Investigator
University of California, Los Angeles
Discovering molecular and neural mechanisms of social behavior

Roxanne Beltran, PhD
2021 Beckman Young Investigator
University of California, Santa Cruz
A novel acoustic recorder for eavesdropping on the ocean soundscape 

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
New York University
X-rays shine light on the synergy between metalloenzyme structure and electronics

Tania Lupoli, PhD
2021 Beckman Young Investigator
Emory 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

ARNOLD O. BECKMAN POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS (alpha ordered by last name)

Ashley Arcidiacono, PhD
2023 Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow
Lehigh University
Tailored Molecular Interfaces for Spin Control and Readout

Suman Gunasekaran, PhD
2023 Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow
Stanford University
Ultrafast angle-resolved spectrometer and tunable microcavity for vacuum-field catalysis

Alexander Hurben, PhD
2023 Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow
Princeton University
Democratizing Environmental Monitoring with Accessible Activity-Based Sensing Platforms

Jaehyeok Jin, PhD
2022 Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow
Columbia University
Multiscale Phase-Field Modeling of Next-Generation Energy Storage Materials

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

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