Three Chinese scientists who graduated from the special class for gifted youngsters of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) won this year’s Sloan Research Fellowships.

The annual fellowships are awarded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". According to a list released on Feb 18, 126 young faculty from around the world were granted the awards. Among them were three Anhui-based USTC alumni: Lu Shan, Yin Jun and Sun Song.

Lu, who was enrolled into the USTC upon graduating from Hefei No.1 High School in 1998 and received a doctor's degree from University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign in 2008, is working for University of Wisconsin as an associate professor of computer science. His colleague Yin, a doctor from Princeton University, began his USTC study in 1998 too. Sun, an associate professor of maths at State University of New York, entered the USTC talent youth class in 2002.

In addition to the three USTC graduates, the list included two graduating from the Peking University and three from the Tsinghua University. Each winner will receive $50,000.

As of 2010, 38 Sloan winners were later awarded the Nobel Prize.