Awards

2027 Awards (opens in new tab)

Nominations for the NAS Awards to be presented in 2027 closed on October 5, 2026. Award recipients will be announced in mid-January 2027. Want to be among the first to know? Subscribe to our awards newsletter to receive the latest announcements and updates.

The 2027 awards will recognize outstanding scientific achievements across a wide range of fields, including biochemistry, computer science, geology, solar physics, and more. Unless otherwise specified, preference is given to early-career scientists and those whose work has not yet received recognition through other major prizes or awards.

Questions? Contact awards@nas.edu.

Previous NAS Award Recipients Honored With Inaugural ICBS Medal (opens in new tab)

The 2026 International Congress of Basic Science (ICBS) has presented its inaugural ICBS Medal, recognizing researchers whose transformative work—documented over at least a decade—represents the current frontier of mathematics, physics, and engineering. Among those honored were previous NAS award recipients Feng Zhang and Xiaowei Zhuang. Read more about their ICBS Medals here.

Xiaowei Zhuang received the 2019 NAS Award for Scientific Discovery for her pioneering contributions to the development of super-resolution imaging and genomic-scale imaging methods. She also received the 2015 NAS Award in Molecular Biology for developing stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM), a high-resolution microscopy method that achieves molecular-scale resolution by bypassing the diffraction limit that has long constrained light microscopy. In addition, Zhuang developed photoswitchable fluorescent dyes that have made this method a powerful tool in biological research and neuroscience.

Feng Zhang received the 2021 Richard Lounsbery Award for pioneering achievements in genome editing, including the discovery of novel CRISPR systems and their development as molecular tools.

Awards Listing

Since 1886, the National Academy of Sciences has honored more than 1,000 individuals in the physical, biological, and social sciences through its awards program.