THE BLAVATNIK AWARDS for Young Scientists

THE BLAVATNIK AWARDS For Young Scientists

N E R AT I O N O T G E F S C E X I E N N T E I F H I C T G I N I N N V O I V R A D T I O N

2020 The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists honor exceptional young scientists and engineers by celebrating their extraordinary achievements, recognizing outstanding promise, and accelerating innovation through unrestricted funding. Table of Contents

Key Features...... 4

Our History...... 6

Blavatnik Regional Awards...... 8

Blavatnik National Awards...... 10

Blavatnik Awards in the United Kingdom...... 12

Blavatnik Awards in Israel...... 14

Blavatnik Science Scholars...... 16

In the News...... 18

“Encouraging and supporting young scientists is essential if we are to successfully address society’s challenges. By honoring these young individuals and their achievements we are helping to promote the breakthroughs in science and technology that will define how our world Established by: Administered by: Blavatnik Awards in Israel, will look over the next century.” in collaboration with: LEN BLAVATNIK FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN BLAVATNIK 2 ACCESS INDUSTRIES AND BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION FAMILY FOUNDATION

2 3 Key Features of The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists

Open to researchers working in more than 36 different scientific and engineering disciplines in three categories:

The Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists in Chemistry

The Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists in Physical Sciences & Engineering

The Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists in Life Sciences

• Recognize and support outstanding young scientists and engineers early in their careers when additional funding and recognition have the greatest impact on their work.

• Honorees are selected based on the quality, novelty, and impact of their research, and their potential for further significant contributions to science.

• Offer the largest unrestricted prizes ever created for early-career scientists.

• Connect alumni with a network of their peers throughout the world to foster collaboration.

“As I get to know the scientists in the Academy’s “It has been my true honor to partner with network, I’ve discovered that past and present visionaries such as Len Blavatnik, who understand Blavatnik Scholars are some of the top young that science and technology make this world better. scientists in the world. We are proud to celebrate I know that the impact of the Blavatnik Awards will them and their achievements, and to showcase their only increase in the coming years.” work to the world.” ELLIS RUBINSTEIN NICHOLAS B. DIRKS PRESIDENT EMERITUS PRESIDENT AND CEO NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

4 5

A R

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Our U The Blavatnik National

THE BLAVATNIK R 60% of Blavatnik Awards

Awards are created to T

R honorees are immigrants C

2014 honor faculty scientists 2016 2018 I

AWARDS E

to the country in which

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across the US, and the 

CELEBRATE THEIR G

History E they were recognized. E

first Laureates in Life 

L R The first international A C Sciences, Physical Sciences M I R L

A & Engineering, and Blavatnik Awards are U B N SCIENCE S U 10TH conferred, recognizing Y  P Chemistry are announced. E  B ANNIVERSARY! KNOWS NO R outstanding academic G E Each Laureate receives L R G H faculty-level scientists and E C The Blavatnik Awards are created to a $250,000 prize. IU BORDERS E E  C M Z celebrate the outstanding postdoctoral engineers in the United E C L   E  C A A 2007 and faculty scientists in New York, The Blavatnik Regional Kingdom and in Israel. H A I R O N T A A IS New Jersey, and Connecticut. Awards continue to honor N D O  IT G A CR • N A K   D postdoctoral scientists in E O CH IA N O T LY N INA  COLOMB LA C New York, New Jersey, H  G RE C E JA  H  I RO R P UN AN O and Connecticut. LA A GARY IA  IR M N N  • IND   D LE ICO D S BA EX N • N NON • IA  M LA EW MALAYS PO  Z E  A R EA TIN KI O LAND LES A MA  NIGERIA  PA OV NI SL A  RE  RUSS APO  IA  SERBIA  SING EA OR SLO H K VEN OUT  IA  SOUT FRICA  S UK S H A Y  PAI RKE N  S  TU WITZER AIWAN LAND  T AN U KIST KRA UZBE INE  URUGUAY  USA 

2017 2018 2020

The Blavatnik Family Foundation announces Three women are named By the close of 2020, expansion of the Blavatnik Awards to the United Blavatnik Regional Award the Blavatnik Awards Kingdom and Israel. In Israel, the New York Winners, marking the first will have recognized The Blavatnik Family The Blavatnik Family Foundation Academy of Sciences collaborates with the time in Blavatnik Awards 321 young scientists Foundation announces and the New York Academy of Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities history that the top prize and engineers and 2012 doubling of the prize 2014 Sciences host the first annual in administering the awards. is concurrently awarded awarded prizes totaling money for Winners and Blavatnik Science Symposium. to female scientists in over US$10.2 million. Finalists starting in 2013. each of the three disciplinary categories.

6 7 Meet the 2019 Blavatnik Awards 2019 Blavatnik Regional Winners

JUNTAO YE Regional Awards 2019 Regional Winner in Chemistry Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China (formerly at Cornell University) Juntao Ye, PhD, invented several new methods that allow for converting readily for Young Scientists available chemicals into value-added and pharmaceutically relevant products in a highly efficient and economical manner, while reducing chemical byproduct waste. These methods could improve the efficiency of synthesizing complex and bioactive Acknowledge and celebrate the excellence compounds, thereby accelerating the pace of drug discovery. of outstanding postdoctoral scientists “My research is aimed at developing efficient, selective, and economical methods for the and engineers who work in New York, synthesis of value-added and pharmaceutically relevant compounds from readily available chemicals. My research goal is to develop new synthetic methods that accelerate the pace of New Jersey, and Connecticut. drug discovery and lower the cost of pharmaceutical drugs.”

Young scientists are nominated by research institutions across the New York region, and Winners and Finalists are selected by a group of senior scientists and engineers from institutions in this Tri-State Area. NETTA ENGELHARDT Winners are awarded US$30,000 each and 2019 Regional Winner in Physical Sciences & Engineering MIT (formerly at Princeton University) Finalists are awarded US$10,000 each in Netta Engelhardt, PhD, researches the interface of general relativity and quantum field unrestricted funds. theory to answer complex questions about the fundamentals of our universe, including a remarkable explanation for the origin of black hole entropy. Her work strives to understand how the fabric of the universe at large scales is encoded in quantum gravity.

“It is an honor to be selected as a Blavatnik Awards honoree. I am very moved by the generosity of the Blavatnik Family Foundation in establishing these awards, and I am grateful that fundamental science conducted by early-career scientists is being recognized and acknowledged.”

LAURA DUVALL 2019 Regional Winner in Life Sciences Columbia University (formerly at The Rockefeller University) Laura Duvall, PhD, discovered two key molecules in mosquitos that inhibit blood- feeding and breeding. This discovery has worldwide implications for controlling mosquito populations and the spread of diseases such as dengue and Zika. At the time of nomination, Duvall was a trainee of the 2007 Blavatnik Regional Awards Faculty Winner, Leslie Vosshall, PhD, of The Rockefeller University.

“I love the creative side of science—having the freedom to follow up on an unexpected observation in the lab that leads us in a completely new direction or totally changes how we’ve been thinking about our experiments. Being wrong is often the first step to an even more exciting discovery.”

8 9 Meet the 2020 Blavatnik Awards 2020 Blavatnik National Laureates

WILLIAM R. DICHTEL National Awards 2020 National Laureate in Chemistry Northwestern University William R. Dichtel, PhD, has pioneered methods to create novel, porous materials from for Young Scientists simple, carbon-based building blocks. These materials can be easily designed and tailored to address specific needs and possess extremely high surface areas because they contain tiny holes—pores that can store, detect, and separate small molecules and ions. Celebrate America’s most innovative and For example, he invented porous materials derived from corn that are now being used promising faculty-rank scientists and commercially to remove toxic substances such as industrial pollutants and pharmaceuticals from drinking water. He has also developed materials that show promise for new energy engineers. storage systems. “It is a true privilege to tackle leading scientific problems while teaching and mentoring the next Nominations are accepted from US-based generation of young scientists. Together we will discover the world’s next great materials.” research institutions and the Blavatnik National Awards Scientific Advisory Council. Every year, one nominee in each category is named a Blavatnik BRIAN METZGER National Awards Laureate and awarded 2020 National Laureate in Physical Sciences & Engineering Columbia University US$250,000 in unrestricted funds, with Brian Metzger, PhD, has settled a long-standing question about the origin of gold and other additional nominees recognized as heavy elements in the universe. He predicted that gold, along with all the stable elements Finalists. Laureates and Finalists are on the lower part of the periodic table, was created in a collision of two merging neutron stars called a “kilonova”. In 2017, the LIGO gravitational wave observatory recorded the first selected by a jury composed of some of observed kilonova explosion, and measurements taken following this discovery confirmed the United States’ most distinguished Metzger’s predictions. Indeed, the heaviest elements present in the universe, like gold, were created by such cataclysmic events. Metzger’s work has ushered in an exciting new scientists and engineers. era in astronomy that will revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos. “What an incredible honor to be recognized by this Award, which uniquely elevates the work of young scientists. It’s an incredible realization that the precious metals in my wedding band were likely forged in the vicinity of a black hole.”

CLIFFORD BRANGWYNNE 2020 National Laureate in Life Sciences Princeton University Clifford Brangwynne, PhD, has transformed the field of cell biology through a discovery “Every year we see an increasing pool of outstanding candidates emerge in the that upends our understanding of the internal organization of cells. Brangwynne discovered Blavatnik National Awards selection, and it is indicative of the kind of prestige and that inside cells, biomolecules can merge to form liquid-like droplets that allow for the localization and compartmentalization of molecular interactions. The ability of these visibility these Awards have and continue to gain.” droplets to smoothly fuse and separate is critical for cell division and the development of embryos. Errors in this physical property may result in the formation of solid structures, ELAINE FUCHS such as the tangles and fibers found in Alzheimer’s disease, which can cause cell damage NATIONAL MEDAL OF SCIENCE RECIPIENT and death. REBECCA C. LANCEFIELD PROFESSOR OF MAMMALIAN CELL BIOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT “It’s a tremendous honor to be chosen as a Blavatnik National Awards Laureate. The THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY recognition of this new field at the interface of cell biology and soft matter physics inspires my CHAIR, 2020 BLAVATNIK NATIONAL AWARDS LIFE SCIENCES JURY lab to continue breaking the barriers separating scientific disciplines.”

10 11 Meet the 2020 Blavatnik Awards 2020 Blavatnik Laureates in the United Kingdom

KIRSTY PENKMAN Awards for Young 2020 United Kingdom Laureate in Chemistry University of York Kirsty Penkman, PhD, leads a research program that has made tremendous advances in Scientists in the our ability to accurately date ancient fossils. A variety of methods currently exist for dating ancient objects, but beyond approximately 50,000 years, dating is very challenging. By carefully refining a technique called amino acid racemization, Penkman has extended this upper limit and successfully dated fossils more than 3 million years old, opening up a time United Kingdom window to help scientists better understand human evolution and climate change. “Having always loved chemistry, but also been fascinated by the past (both our human history Recognize and support outstanding and that of our Earth), I feel enormously lucky to be able to combine both in my work. My research focuses on the analysis of fossil biomolecules: their pathways of degradation, methods young scientists and engineers working in for their detection, and how these molecules can inform us of an organism’s life and death England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern history. I am tremendously honored by this Blavatnik Award, and it is thanks to my wonderful collaborators who have been integral to this research. Working closely with Earth scientists Ireland. and archaeologists has helped push the analytical science forward, whilst advancing our understanding of our Earth’s history.” Talented young academic staff across the UK are nominated by their university or research institution, or by members of the CLAUDIA de RHAM 2020 United Kingdom Laureate in Physical Sciences & Engineering Blavatnik Awards UK Scientific Advisory Imperial College London Council. Each year, one nominee in each Claudia de Rham, PhD, has completed a decades-old quest to construct a rigorous and category is named a Blavatnik Awards UK viable theory of massive gravity—a theory of physics that modifies Einstein’s theory of general relativity to explain the nature of gravity. de Rham’s innovative solutions Laureate and awarded US$100,000 in provide a potential explanation for why the universe is expanding faster and faster, and unrestricted funds, with two Finalists in also has profound implications for the answers to other important questions in physics, each category each receiving US$30,000 in such as the search for new types of particles in the universe. unrestricted funds. Laureates and Finalists “Cosmologists are spacetime explorers, pushing the boundaries of our knowledge and uncovering new physics at the interface between particle physics, gravity, and astronomy. are selected by a jury of distinguished As a cosmologist, I am truly honored to receive this Award and would like to thank all my scientists based in the UK. collaborators.”

“There are many prizes for senior scientists often at a time TIMOTHY BEHRENS when they don’t need them and frequently years after they’ve 2020 United Kingdom Laureate in Life Sciences University of Oxford and University College London made their big discoveries. It is a really nice change to see Timothy Behrens, DPhil, seeks to solve a fundamental mystery of the brain: how do the scientists rewarded early in their career when they have many electrical signals in our brain control our behavior? To do this, he builds computer models great things ahead of them.” and measures brain signals in humans and animals. His research reveals basic knowledge about the human brain and has translational implications for how doctors are guided SIR VENKI RAMAKRISHNAN while performing brain surgery, how computer scientists design artificial intelligence NOBEL LAUREATE systems, and how we research and treat mental and cognitive disorders. PRESIDENT ”Being a scientist is like staying a kid all your life—every day is an adventure, and some days THE ROYAL SOCIETY you discover something so cool you want to tell your mum about it. I feel very privileged MEMBER, THE BLAVATNIK AWARDS IN THE to do it for a living. It is wonderful that the Blavatnik Family Foundation is supporting UK UK SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY COUNCIL science, and I am completely thrilled and honored to be this year’s Laureate in Life Sciences.”

12 13 Meet the 2020 Blavatnik Awards 2020 Blavatnik Laureates in Israel EMMANUEL LEVY Awards for Young 2020 Israel Laureate in Chemistry Weizman Institute of Science Life processes involve an intricate choreography between tens of millions of protein building blocks that form the infrastructure of a cell. Understanding how these protein Scientists in building blocks assemble and work together is an extraordinarily complex task due to the huge number of potential interactions. Emmanuel Levy, PhD, has revealed protein hot-spots, where mutations frequently trigger new assemblages. His findings suggest that these assemblages emerge frequently during evolution, both in health and Israel disease. Additionally, Levy has developed a range of computational and biochemical methodologies for grasping the molecular infrastructure of living cells.

Celebrate and support outstanding young “Receiving the Blavatnik Award is an immense honor, encouraging me to pursue my work with the ambition that in the future, it will be possible to grasp the inner workings of a cell to atomic faculty-rank scientists in Israel. detail. I am most grateful to my present and past group members for their amazing ideas and hard work, to my mentors and colleagues for their continuous and inspiring support, and to my Each year, one nominee in each category is family for providing what life is all about, beyond the molecules.” named a Blavatnik Awards Israel Laureate and awarded US$100,000 in unrestricted funds. GUY ROTHBLUM Nominations are accepted from all universities 2020 Israel Laureate in Physical Sciences & Engineering in Israel and from the Blavatnik Awards Weizman Institute of Science Israel Scientific Advisory Council. Laureates Guy Rothblum, PhD, develops critical solutions to address security and privacy issues associated with the deployment of modern computing methodologies such as cloud are selected by a jury of world-recognized computing and machine learning—issues that have become important societal researchers working in Israel. concerns as these technologies become widespread. His work has not only advanced our understanding of the fundamental limitations of these methodologies, but also influenced the development of new algorithms and protocols in these fields. He is The Blavatnik Awards in Israel are known for his theory that enables one to efficiently verify the results of sensitive computations outsourced to untrusted cloud computers, and his algorithm that administered jointly by the New York Academy protects individual privacy in statistical analysis and machine learning. of Sciences and the Israel Academy of “Can we harness the power of modern computing without compromising individuals’ privacy Sciences and Humanities. or control over their own data and computations? It’s a privilege to work on such fascinating questions and a great honor to be recognized by this Award.”

IGOR ULITSKY 2020 Israel Laureate in Life Sciences Weizman Institute of Science “Each of this year’s winners demonstrate their Igor Ulitsky, PhD, works to uncover the biology of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), a class of genetic material implicated in genome regulation that is often dysregulated outstanding merit, their passion for pushing the in human disease. Understanding how, when, and where lncRNAs are active in our frontiers of scientific discovery, and their bright bodies has major implications for the development of novel regenerative medicines and disease treatments. Unlike canonical RNA molecules, lncRNAs do not contain future as part of a new generation of pioneering information for making proteins. Instead, their main function is to control gene Israeli scientists.” expression. Discovering how lncRNAs function is critical for revising basic principles of genetics and has implications for the development of novel disease therapies targeting NILI COHEN cancer, brain injury, and epilepsy. PRESIDENT “We have today an incredible ability to read genomes, but we do not understand the vast THE ISRAEL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES majority of what is written in them. Our work focuses on some of the least accessible chapters in the book of DNA, which are challenging and fascinating.” 14 15 2016 Michael Fischbach Alexandra Boltasseva US NATIONAL UNITED KINGDOM Blavatnik US NATIONAL Nathan Gianneschi Edward Boyden LAUREATES FINALISTS LAUREATES Antonio Giraldez Clifford Brangwynne Emily Balskus Ian Chapman Phil Baran Julia Greer Luis Campos Heather J. Lynch Matthew Fuchter Science Scholars David Charbonneau Christy Haynes Bianxiao Cui Ana Maria Rey Stephen Goldup Michael Rape Mark Hersam Mircea Dincă Eleanor Stride In the fourteen years since its launch, the Blavatnik Awards for Young Bo Huang Xiangfeng Duan US NATIONAL Amaury Triaud Scientists program has built an exceptional network of honorees US NATIONAL Sergei V. Kalinin Jonathan Fortney FINALISTS Edze Rients Westra whose members together represent one of the most dynamic, FINALISTS Jure Leskovec Neil Garg Andrea Alù innovative, and cross-disciplinary communities in the world. Andrea Alù Stavros Lomvardas Christy Haynes Clifford Brangwynne US NATIONAL Alexei Borodin Franziska Michor Ryan Hayward Chiara Daraio LAUREATES Garnet Chan Celeste Nelson Bo Huang William Dichtel Clifford Brangwynne Xin Chen Bradley Pentelute Jure Leskovec Xiangfeng Duan William Dichtel Yi Cui Antonis Rokas Zachary Lippman Viviana Gradinaru Brian Metzger Matthew Disney Pardis Sabeti Ying Shirley Meng Mohammad Hafezi 2007 Rebecca Oppenheimer POSTDOCTORAL 2014 2015 Pieter Dorrestein Michael Strano Brian Metzger Christy Haynes US NATIONAL FACULTY WINNERS Shai Shaham WINNERS US NATIONAL US NATIONAL Casey Dunn Dmitri Talapin Franziska Michor Ive Hermans FINALISTS Léon Bottou Franck Oury LAUREATES LAUREATES Michael Fischbach Tommaso Treu Joseph Mougous Liangbing Hu Aditya Akella George Malliaras FACULTY FINALISTS Valentino Tosatti Adam Cohen Christopher Chang David Ginger, Jr. Benjamin Tu Celeste Nelson Michael Jewett Andrea Alù Ruslan Medzhitov Tamas Horvath Marin Soljačić Edward Chang Antonio Giraldez Anastasia Volovich Bradley Pentelute Jeremiah Johnson Polina Anikeeva Milan Stojanovic Lam Hui POSTDOCTORAL Rachel Wilson Syed Jafar Jenny Greene Gleb Yushin Joseph Subotnik Subhash Khot Luis M. Campos Leslie B. Vosshall Daniel Sigman FINALISTS Julia Greer Benjamin Tu Jure Leskovec Cory Dean Denis Zorin Roberto Bonasio US NATIONAL US NATIONAL Bo Huang REGIONAL WINNERS Anastasia Volovich Ying Shirley Meng Guangbin Dong FACULTY FINALISTS Mary Kay Lobo FINALISTS FINALISTS Sergei V. Kalinin June Huh Emily Weiss Brian Metzger Neil K. Garg Antje Baeumner POSTDOCTORAL Shaun Olsen Phil Baran Phil Baran Rob Knight Andrew Ilott Gene Yeo Wei Min Elena Gracheva Christoph Bregler WINNERS Ruth Van De Water Helen Blackwell Bianxiao Cui Nevan Krogan Chao Lu Gleb Yushin Joseph Mougous Viviana Gradinaru Geoffrey Coates Sreekanth Chalasani Garnet Chan Yi Cui Teri Odom Seth Murray Kristen Grauman Antonio Giraldez Ofer Feinerman 2012 Christopher Chang Matthew Disney Aydogan Ozcan REGIONAL FINALISTS REGIONAL WINNERS Nicholas Navin Mohammad Hafezi Tarun Kapoor Eva Pastalkova FACULTY WINNERS Howard Chang Xiangfeng Duan Oliver Rando Alan Healy Shruti Naik David Nicewicz Mohammad Hajiaghayi Scott Keeney Alexander Pechen Andrei Bernevig Peng Chen Michael Fischbach Antonina Roll-Mecak Chia Wei (Wade) Hsu Lingyan Shi Mohammad R. Liangbing Hu Philip Kim Jason Fridley Yi Cui Eric Ford Pardis Sabeti Wilhelm Palm Lu Wei Seyedsayamdost Sun Hur Colin Nuckolls 2010 Alison Galvani Ruben Gonzalez Markus Greiner Beth Shapiro Eunyong Park Joseph Subotnik Prashant K. Jain Kathryn Uhrich FACULTY WINNERS Assaf Naor Ali Hajimiri Rustem Ismagilov Amit Singer Ataman Sendoel REGIONAL FINALISTS Benjamin tenOever Cigall Kadoch Song-Hai Shi Patrick Hopkins Jonathan Kagan Edward Valeev Douglas Stanford Samuel Bakhoum Benjamin Tu Subhash Khot 2008 Zoltan Haiman FACULTY FINALISTS Ali Javey Ali Khademhosseini Anastasia Volovich Niankai Fu Emily Weiss Maureen D. Long FACULTY WINNERS Michal Lipson Michael Collins Jonathan Kagan Rob Knight Leor Weinberger 2018 Lucia Gualtieri Nieng Yan Julius B. Lucks Steve Gubser Evgeny Nudler Wei Min Ali Khademhosseini Nevan Krogan Feng Zhang ISRAEL LAUREATES Peter Schauss Gene Yeo Houra Merrikh Laura Landweber Rob Knight Hakho Lee Charles Diesendruck Priyanka Sharma Wei Min Tom Muir FACULTY FINALISTS POSTDOCTORAL Harmit Malik Hening Lin REGIONAL WINNERS Anat Levin Zhe Zhang REGIONAL WINNERS Seth Murray Elza Erkip WINNERS Sarkis Mazmanian Yueh-Lin Loo William Anderegg Oded Rechavi Laura Duvall Aydogan Ozcan FACULTY FINALISTS David Evans Andrey Feklistov Teri Odom Harmit Malik Jian Li 2019 Netta Engelhardt Gary J. Patti Daphne Bavelier Neal Weiner Michael Hahn Aydogan Ozcan Luciano Marraffini Tomoyasu Mani UNITED KINGDOM ISRAEL LAUREATES Juntao Ye Ryan A. Shenvi Geoffrey Coates Robert Johnston Michael Rape Aydogan Ozcan LAUREATES Moran Bercovici Emily A. Weiss Christine Jacobs-Wagner POSTDOCTORAL Elisa Oricchio Leonardo Rastelli Abhay Pasupathy REGIONAL FINALISTS M. Madan Babu Erez Berg REGIONAL FINALISTS Nieng Yan Eric Lai WINNERS Nicholas Stavropoulos Melanie Sanford Michael Rape Xi Chen Andrew Goodwin Michal Rivlin Derya Akkaynak Joel Yuen-Zhou Kenneth Shepard Yaron Lipman William Shih Jared Rutter Matthieu Gagnon Henry Snaith Igor Dikiy Saeed Tavazoie Haitao Liu 2013 Michael Strano Melanie Sanford Kate Meyer UNITED KINGDOM Carla Nasca Daniela Schiller FACULTY WINNERS Alice Ting Michael Strano Rachel Perry UNITED KINGDOM LAUREATES Liling Wan POSTDOCTORAL David Blei Sinisa Urban Alice Ting Eli Visbal FINALISTS Philipp Kukura Matthew Yankowitz WINNERS POSTDOCTORAL Kristjan Haule Peng Yin Ashvin Vishwanath Kuang Yu Timothy Behrens Konstantinos Nikolopoulos Yaping Zang Andrew Houck FINALISTS Patrick Holland Martin Zanni Peng Yin John Briggs Ewa Paluch Andrey Pisarev Nicolas Reyes Samie Jaffrey Feng Zhang 2017 Claudia de Rham 2020 Agnel Sfeir Frans Pretorius REGIONAL WINNERS Yi Zuo US NATIONAL Robert Hilton UNITED KINGDOM ISREAL LAUREATES POSTDOCTORAL Clément Hongler LAUREATES Andrew Levan FINALISTS Emmanuel Levy Jeremy Palmer REGIONAL WINNERS FINALISTS 2011 POSTDOCTORAL Yi Cui Philipp Kukura Timothy Behrens Guy Rothblum Panteleimon Rompolas Hani Goodarzi Alexei Aravin FACULTY WINNERS WINNERS Melanie Sanford Gustav Holzegel Igor Ulitsky Arash Nikoubashman Matthew Evans Johannes Gehrke Jonathan Fisher Feng Zhang US NATIONAL Igor Larrosa REGIONAL FINALISTS Nicolás Young Valerie Horsley Szabolcs Márka Rachel Rosen LAUREATES Kathy Niakan UNITED KINGDOM Stephen Brohawn Andreas Keller US NATIONAL Janelle Ayres Máire O’Neill LAUREATES Dilek Colak REGIONAL FINALISTS Shobha Vasudevan FACULTY FINALISTS POSTDOCTORAL FINALISTS Neal K. Devaraj Rachel O’Reilly Timothy Behrens Nathaniel Craig Allyson Friedman Robert Anderson FINALISTS Andrea Alù Sergei V. Kalinin Claudia de Rham Knut Drescher Xiang Gao 2009 Charalampos Kalodimos Bi-Sen Ding Matthew Becker Kirsty Penkman Emily Hodges Xiaowei Hou Jinzhong Lin FACULTY WINNERS Jun Korenaga Nicholas Dauphas US NATIONAL Mariangela Lisanti Jérémie Palacci Yang Liu Paul Chirik Olga Troyanskaya William Dichtel FINALISTS Jason MacGurn Dennis Perepelitsa Carmala Garzione Gerard Wysocki Matthew Disney Andrea Alù Xiankai Sun Ziv Shulman Mohamed El-Naggar Emily Balskus

16 17 Blavatnik BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION The Blavatnik Family Foundation is an active supporter of world-renowned educational, scientific, cultural, and charitable institutions in the United States, Science Scholars the United Kingdom, Israel, and throughout the world. A 501(c)(3) private foundation that is exclusively self-funded, over the past decade it has contributed In the News more than $700 million to more than 250 charitable institutions worldwide. Heather Lynch discovers that the population of chinstrap penguins in Donations are highly concentrated to drive meaningful impact and to promote Antarctica has declined by 77% in the past 50 years. innovation in science, engineering, and technology that will benefit the whole of Time | February 10, 2020 society. The Foundation focuses on select institutions leading the way in early- The Times | February 11, 2020 stage discovery vital to scientific and health-related breakthroughs. The National Geographic | February 11, 2020 Foundation is headed by Len Blavatnik, a global industrialist and philanthropist Al Jazeera | February 10, 2020 who received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1989. Blavatnik is Bloomberg | February 11, 2020 founder and chairman of Access Industries, a privately-held industrial group based in the US with global strategic interests in natural resources and Viviana Gradinaru discovers that disruptions in gut proteins may chemicals, media and telecommunications, real estate, venture capital/ contribute to Parkinson’s disease. technology, entertainment, biotechnology, and selected external funds. BioWorld | February 19, 2020 See more at www.blavatnikfoundation.org. Parkinson’s News Today | February 24, 2020

Alison Galvani advises Senator Bernie Sanders in developing the Medicare for All Act. NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Washington Post | February 20, 2020 The New York Academy of Sciences is an independent, not-for-profit organization David Charbonneau attends a congressional hearing discussing new that since 1817 has been committed to advancing science, technology, and society telescopes in Hawaii. worldwide. With more than 20,000 Members in 100 countries around the world, The New York Times | March 13, 2020 the Academy is creating a global community of science for the benefit of humanity. ABOVE: 2015 and 2016 Blavatnik The Academy’s core mission is to advance scientific knowledge, positively impact Emily Balskus utilizes bacterial enzymes as a new target for antibiotics. National Awards Finalist, Nevan the major global challenges of society with science-based solutions, and increase Krogan, PhD, along with his The Fairs News | March 18, 2020 collaborators, has identified 69 the number of scientifically informed individuals in society at large. Technology Networks | March 18, 2020 existing drugs and experimental compounds that may be effective Please visit us online at www.nyas.org and follow us on Twitter at @NYASciences. Science Daily | March 17, 2020 in treating COVID-19. Nevan Krogan and his team discover existing drugs that could be used to treat COVID-19. THE ISRAEL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES The New York Times | March 22, 2020 The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities is the preeminent scientific Scientific American | March 20, 2020 institution in Israel. It was established by law in 1961 and acts as a national focal Nikkei Asian Review | April 8, 2020 point for Israeli scholarship in all branches of the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The Academy comprises 132 of Israel’s most distinguished Feng Zhang and a team from Pinterest launch the self-reporting COVID-19 scientists and scholars who operate in two divisions—the Sciences Division and tracking app, “How We Feel”. the Humanities Division. It is tasked with promoting Israeli scientific excellence, TechCrunch | April 2, 2020 advising the government on scientific matters of national interest, publishing The New York Times | April 1, 2020 scholarly research of lasting merit, and maintaining active contact with the Matthew Fuchter creates chiral molecules and electronic materials with broader international scientific and scholarly community. novel properties. Please visit us online at www.academy.ac.il and follow us on Twitter @IsraelAcademy. Chemistry World Today | April 29, 2020 Nathan Gianneschi and his team create a synthetic melanin-based hair “Such significant declines suggest that the Southern Ocean’s ecosystem is dye that is safer than chemical dyes. fundamentally changed from 50 years ago and that the impacts of this are SciTechDaily | May 11, 2020 rippling up the food web to species like chinstrap penguins.” HEATHER J. LYNCH 2019 BLAVATNIK NATIONAL LAUREATE ON THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON ANTARTICA’S PENGUIN POPULATION SPEAKING TO TIME MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 10, 2020

18 19 Blavatnik Awards fo BLAVATNIK Young Scientists FAMILY FOUNDATION www.facebook.com/blavatnikawards @BlavatnikAwards www.blavatnikawards.org