2025 NAS Awards Recipients Announced

Jan. 23, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Academy Honors 20 for Major Contributions to Science

WASHINGTON — The National Academy of Sciences will honor 20 individuals with awards recognizing their extraordinary scientific achievements in a wide range of fields spanning the physical, biological, social, and medical sciences.

Lewis E. Kay, University of Toronto, will receive the Alexander Hollaender Award in Biophysics for his seminal contributions to expand understanding of protein folding, dynamics, and function. The award will be presented with a $20,000 prize.

Stuart D. Bale, University of California, Berkeley, will receive the Arctowski Medal for fundamental contributions to our understanding of the physics of the solar corona and the solar wind. The medal is presented with a $100,000 prize, plus $100,000 to support research in solar physics and solar terrestrial relationships.

Adam K. Leroy, The Ohio State University, will receive the Henry Draper Medal for his pathbreaking efforts to advance understanding of the interstellar medium. The medal is presented with a $25,000 prize.

Jennifer A. Lewis, Harvard University, will receive the James Prize in Science and Technology Integration for pioneering contributions to the programmable assembly of soft functional, structural, and biological materials. The medal is presented with a $50,000 prize.

Nima Anari, Stanford University, Kuikui Liu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Shayan Oveis Gharan and Cynthia Vinzant, University of Washington, will receive the Michael and Sheila Held Prize for breakthrough work advancing the theory of matroids and mixing rates of Markov chains. The prize is presented with $100,000.

Michael E. Jung, University of California, Los Angeles, will receive the NAS Award for Chemistry in Service to Society for his key contributions to synthetic medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. The medal is presented with a $20,000 prize.

Xiaodong Xu, University of Washington, will receive the NAS Award for Scientific Discovery for his experimental observation of the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect. The award is presented with a $50,000 prize, and $50,000 to support the recipient’s research.

Peter G. Wolynes, Rice University, will receive the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences for breakthrough contributions that enhance our understanding of protein structure dynamics and function. The award is presented with a medal and $15,000.

John D. Sutherland, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, will receive the NAS Award in Early Earth and Life Studies — Stanley Miller Medal for advancing understanding of the chemical origins of microbiology. The award is presented with a medal and $10,000 prize.

Eric Skaar, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, will receive the NAS Award in Molecular Biology for pioneering work at the intersection of nutrition and infectious diseases. The award is presented with a medal and $25,000.

Liqun Luo, Stanford University, will receive the NAS Award in the Neurosciences for advancing understanding of the mechanisms of neural development, neuronal diversity, and brain wiring. The award is presented with a $25,000 prize.

Hans Coetzee, Kansas State University, will receive the NAS Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences for transformative research into safe and cost-effective pain relief solutions for livestock. The prize is presented with a medal and $100,000.

Anne Churchland, University of California, Los Angeles, will receive the Pradel Research Award for expanding understanding of the neural circuits that support decision-making. The prize is presented with a $50,000 research award to support neuroscience research.

Michael M. Yartsev, University of California, Berkeley and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, will receive the Richard Lounsbery Award for pivotal contributions advancing our understanding of systems neuroscience. The award is presented with a $75,000 prize.

Rotem Sorek, Weizmann Institute of Science, will receive the Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology for groundbreaking discoveries on the immune system of bacteria. The award is presented with a $20,000 prize.

Evelina Fedorenko, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Nicholas Turk-Browne, Yale University, will each receive a Troland Research Award. With these awards, the Academy recognizes Fedorenko for groundbreaking contributions and insights into the language network in the human brain, and Turk-Browne for pioneering contributions advancing our understanding of learning and memory in the human brain. Each recipient is presented with a $75,000 award to support their research.

The winners will be honored in a ceremony on April 27 during the National Academy of Sciences’ 162nd annual meeting.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine provides science, engineering, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.

Contact:
Molly Galvin
Director, Executive Communications
Office of News and Public Information
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
202-334-2138; news@nas.edu