Jan. 22, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Academy Honors 19 for Major Contributions to Science
WASHINGTON — The National Academy of Sciences will honor 19 individuals with awards recognizing their extraordinary scientific achievements in a wide range of fields spanning the physical, biological, social, and medical sciences.
Roland Bürgmann, University of California, Berkeley, will receive the Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship for his landmark contributions to earthquake science. The award includes a $50,000 prize and funds to present a series of Day Lectures.
Deanna M. Barch, Washington University in St. Louis, and Tor D. Wager, Dartmouth College, will each receive an Atkinson Prize in Psychological and Cognitive Sciences. With these awards, the Academy recognizes Barch for her seminal contributions to advancing understanding of developmental psychopathology, and Wager for his pioneering research revealing how the brain shapes pain, emotion, and belief. Each will receive a $100,000 prize.
Jonas Zmuidzinas, California Institute of Technology, will receive the James Craig Watson Medal for his seminal work designing and developing technologies and instruments to advance astrophysics. The medal is presented with a $25,000 prize and $50,000 to support the recipient’s research.
Mike Stratton, Wellcome Sanger Institute, will receive the Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal for his transformative work in cancer genomics. The medal is presented with a $25,000 prize, and an additional $50,000 for research.
Joseph Henrich, Harvard University, will receive the John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science for his fundamental contributions to anthropology, cognitive science, and psychology. The award, this year in the social sciences (excluding economics), is presented with a medal and a $25,000 prize.
Roman Bezrukavnikov, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will receive the Maryam Mirzakhani Prize in Mathematics for his seminal contributions to geometric representation theory. The award is presented with a $20,000 prize.
Irit Dveer Dinur, Institute for Advanced Study and Weizmann Institute; Subhash Khot, New York University; Guy Kindler, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Dor Minzer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Muli Safra, Tel Aviv University, will receive the Michael and Sheila Held Prize for advancing understanding in theoretical computer science. The $100,000 prize will be divided among the recipients.
Ilya Sutskever, Safe Superintelligence, Inc. (SSI), will receive the NAS Award for the Industrial Application of Science for revolutionary contributions to artificial intelligence and its industrial applications. The award, this year in artificial intelligence, is presented with a $25,000 prize.
Benjamin F. Cravatt, Scripps Research Institute, will receive the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences for providing foundational insights into enzyme function and dysregulation in disease. The award is presented with a medal and $15,000 prize.
Philip J. Kranzusch, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, will receive the NAS Award in Molecular Biology for his groundbreaking work advancing the understanding of innate immunity. The award is presented with a medal and $25,000 prize.
James C. Schnable, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will receive the NAS Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences for breakthroughs in plant genomics and quantitative genetics that are reshaping modern agriculture. The award is presented with a medal and $100,000 prize.
Sebastian Seung, Princeton University, will receive the Pradel Research Award for transformative advances in computational neuroscience. The prize is presented with a $50,000 research award to support neuroscience research.
M.J. Crockett, Princeton University, and Jason D. Yeatman, Stanford University, will each receive a Troland Research Award. With these awards, the Academy recognizes Crockett for their pioneering contributions to a mechanistic theory of moral cognition, and Yeatman for advancing literacy understanding and improving evidence-based treatments for reading disorders. Each recipient is presented with a $75,000 award to support their research.
The winners will be honored in a ceremony on April 26 during the National Academy of Sciences’ 163rd 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
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