UW-Madison faculty members Ahna Skop and Sterling Johnson were among 58 researchers awarded the 2006 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers Thursday at the White House in Washington, D.C.

According to a statement, former President Bill Clinton created the award in 1996 to celebrate research conducted early in researchers’ careers that display their potential to forge the way for exceptional future developments in their respective fields.

The National Science Foundation nominated Skop, an assistant professor of genetics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and School of Medicine and Public Health.

Irwin Goldman, CALS vice dean, said Skop’s work focuses on cytokinesis, a process detailing how cells divide. “The over-arching goal is to better understand this process so that therapeutics for diseases such as cancer and other age-related conditions can be developed,” Goldman said.

Johnson, an associate professor of medicine at the School of Medicine and Public Health and William S. Middleton Veterans Administration Hospital, was nominated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for his research on neural disorders related to aging, according to a statement.

Skop, who is going on her fourth year as a member of the faculty, was a former graduate student at UW-Madison from 1994 until 2000. Skop said she was “proud and excited” to given the award.

Both PECASE recipients will receive up to five years of funding from their nominating institutions.