Driving the Next Generation of Scientific Innovation
Considered the largest unrestricted prize ever created for early-career scientists, the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists were established in 2007 by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and are independently administered by The New York Academy of Sciences. The Blavatnik Awards seek to identify and honor exceptional young scientists and engineers 42 years of age and younger. Honorees are selected based on the quality, novelty, and impact of their research and their potential for further significant contributions to science.
Focus on Promising Young Scientists
Unlike lifetime achievement awards that honor scientists at a later stage in their career, the Blavatnik Awards aim to identify and encourage promising young scientists early on, when they are most in need of funding and recognition.
Founded and Supported by:
“Our goal is to recognize exceptional young scientists, and to showcase their work as examples of what the next generation of young scientists should strive to achieve. The Blavatnik Family Foundation provides critical support to fuel the kind of innovative science and technology research that addresses society’s most pressing global problems.” Len Blavatnik
Three Disciplinary Categories
Blavatnik Awards honorees are recognized in three disciplinary categories:
Chemical Sciences
Physical Sciences & Engineering
Life Sciences
Four Awards
The Academy administers the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists as four separate Awards programs:
$17.2M in Unrestricted Funding Awarded
Science Knows No Borders
The New York Academy of Sciences administers the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists as four separate Awards programs, recognizing scientists in Chemical Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Life Sciences with unrestricted prizes.
Blavatnik Regional Awards
Postdoctoral scientists and engineers working in the New York metropolitan area
Nominations accepted from over 70 invited research institutions in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut
Institutions are invited to submit up to 15 nominations across all three disciplinary categories
One Laureate in each category awarded US$30,000; two Finalists in each category receive US$10,000
Blavatnik National Awards
Faculty-rank scientists and engineers working in the US
Nominations accepted from over 300 invited research institutions, members of the Awards’ US Scientific Advisory Council, and past Blavatnik National Award Laureates
Institutions are invited to submit up to one nominee in each disciplinary category
One Laureate in each category awarded US$250,000; additional nominees recognized as Finalists
Blavatnik Awards in the United Kingdom
Faculty-rank scientists and engineers working in the UK
Nominations accepted from 135 eligible research institutions throughout England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, members of the Awards’ UK Scientific Advisory Council, and past Blavatnik Awards in the UK Laureates
Institutions are invited to submit up to one nominee in each category
One Laureate in each category awarded (GBP) £100,000; two Finalists in each category receive (GBP) £30,000
Blavatnik Awards in Israel
Faculty-rank scientists and engineers working in Israel
Nominations accepted from eligible research institutions throughout Israel and from members of the Awards’ Israel Scientific Advisory Council.
Institutions are invited to submit up to three nominees in each category
One Laureate in each category awarded US$100,000
The Blavatnik Awards in Israel are administered in Israel in collaboration with the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
The Blavatnik Awards were created in 2007 to acknowledge and celebrate the excellence of outstanding postdoctoral and faculty-rank scientists and engineers working in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In 2012, the Blavatnik Family Foundation announced the doubling of the prize money for Laureates and Finalists starting in 2013 and, in 2014, the Foundation established the Blavatnik National Awards as a country-wide competition to identify America’s most brilliant young faculty-rank scientists. It was during this pivotal year that the first Blavatnik National Awards Laureates in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemical Sciences were recognized, each receiving US$250,000—the largest unrestricted prize ever created for early-career scientists. In 2017, the Foundation expanded the Blavatnik Awards overseas to identify and honor young, innovative scientists working in the United Kingdom and in Israel.
View the complete list of Blavatnik Awards Honorees (2007-2023) here.
Click on the “Awards Program” tab above to learn more about the four Blavatnik Awards programs.
Honorees of the Blavatnik Awards have gone on to receive honors such as the Breakthrough Prize and a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. They have been named Investigators of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), elected to the National Academy of Sciences, shortlisted for TIME magazine’s Person of the Year, and launched companies that are now publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.
Since 2014, the Academy has hosted the annual Blavatnik Science Symposium, to highlight the Blavatnik Awards’ diverse scientific community, promote research, and cultivate collaborations between these young champions of science. This invite-only symposium features panel discussions, keynote speakers, and research updates from Blavatnik Awards honorees, and exposes the Scholars to cutting-edge science spanning a variety of fields. Blavatnik Fellows participating in entrepreneurship programs at some of America’s top universities are also invited to attend the two-day event.
In 2019, the Blavatnik Family Foundation initiated an annual public symposium in London, England, featuring honorees of the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the United Kingdom.
2024
By the close of 2024, the Blavatnik Awards will have honored 470 young scientists and engineers hailing from 53 countries, with prizes totaling $17.2 million. Additionally, 50 companies have been formed following their recognition by the awards.
2020
Blavatnik Scholars rally to the fight against COVID-19. From predicting and detecting disease spread to identifying an effective treatment, recipients of the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists rise to the challenge as society calls on scientists to help repair the world.
2019
Three women are named Blavatnik National Award Laureates, marking the first time in Blavatnik National Award history that the top prize is concurrently awarded to female scientists in each of the three disciplinary categories. In 2018, three women were also awarded the top prize in each category in the Blavatnik Regional Awards.
2018
The inaugural Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the United Kingdon and in Israel receive 124 nominations from 67 institution and 467 nominations from eight institutions, respectively. The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists are conferred for the time in both countries. In Israel, The New York Academy of Sciences collaborates with the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in administering the awards.
2014
The Blavatnik National Awards announce its first National Laureates in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemistry. The Blavatnik Family Foundation and The New York Academy of Sciences hosts the first annual Blavatnik Science Symposium.
2012
The Blavatnik Family Foundation announces a doubling of the prize money for winners and finalists. The following year, the Award granted three $250,000 prizes in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemistry to faculty scientists.
2007
The Blavatnik Regional Awards are created in the United States to celebrate the outstanding postdoctoral and faculty scientists who work in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Visit our YouTube channel to learn more about Blavatnik Scholars and their award-winning research.
See more at www.blavatnikfoundation.org.
Contact
Sonya Dougal, PhD
SVP, Awards & Scientific Programs
blavatnikawards@nyas.org