Three Scientists Honored with $250,000 Blavatnik Awards for Breakthroughs in Organic Chemistry, Gene Editing and Bioelectronics

Celebrations held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York for the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists' 20th anniversary gala.

NEW YORK, Oct. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Three exceptional scientists each received $250,000 – the largest unrestricted scientific award available to early-career scientists in the United States – at the 2026 ceremony of the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists for their work in organic chemistry, genome engineering, and bioelectronics.

Presented by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and The New York Academy of Sciences, the Awards honor America's most innovative faculty-rank scientists and engineers, aged 42 and younger. The 2026 Laureates were selected from a highly competitive pool of 372 nominees representing 187 academic and research institutions across 43 states. From this national pool, an independent jury of eminent scientists also selected 15 Finalists who each received $15,000 in unrestricted funding.

The winners of the 2026 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists are:

CHEMICAL SCIENCES LAUREATE:
David Nagib, The Ohio State University
Organic synthesis is a major bottleneck in the discovery of new medicines. To address this, organic chemist Prof. David Nagib develops methods to create key medicinal building blocks by harnessing reactive chemical species called radicals and carbenes. His lab has invented ways to activate inert portions of complex molecules. By turning high-energy chemistry into reliable methods, Nagib's work helps chemists create more potent and selective medicines faster, cheaper, and more efficiently. These advances are accelerating pharmaceutical discovery and expanding what is possible in modern organic chemistry.

LIFE SCIENCES LAUREATE:
Patrick Hsu, Arc Institute and Stanford University
Biology relies on molecular machines that read, write, and regulate genetic information, yet scientists are only beginning to understand how to harness their full potential. Prof. Patrick Hsu, a bioengineer and co-founder of the Arc Institute, discovers and engineers these programmable biological systems to precisely manipulate DNA and RNA. His work has expanded the CRISPR toolkit with RNA-targeting enzymes, uncovered programmable bridge RNAs that can direct large-scale genome rewriting, and pioneered artificial intelligence models that predict and design biological sequences. Together, these innovations are transforming genome engineering, accelerating biological discovery, and supporting the development of new gene therapies while laying the foundation for a new era of AI-enabled biological design.

PHYSICAL SCIENCES & ENGINEERING LAUREATE
Jonathan Rivnay, Northwestern University
The human body runs on chemical and ionic signals, but ordinary electronics struggle to read or join that conversation. To overcome this obstacle, materials scientist and biomedical engineer Prof. Jonathan Rivnay is designing soft, flexible electronic materials that work directly with living cells and tissue. Rivnay has helped to pioneer implantable "living pharmacies": small devices that hold engineered cells and prompt them to make and release medicines inside the body. Rivnay's work is leading the world to more personalized treatments for long-term conditions such as cancer, diabetes, and circadian rhythm disorders.

"We are extremely proud to recognize this year's National Laureates and to welcome them into the Blavatnik Awards community," said Len Blavatnik, Founder of Access Industries and Head of the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

The Ceremony

The Blavatnik Awards announced the Laureates at its 20th anniversary gala, a black-tie awards ceremony held October 6 at the American Museum of Natural History, hosted by Len and Emily Blavatnik and presented by Robert P. Lifton, MD, PhD, President of The Rockefeller University.

During the ceremony, each Laureate shared their prize-winning research with leading figures in philanthropy, research, academia, business, and the arts. Fifteen Blavatnik National Award Finalists and nine Blavatnik Regional Awards honorees were recognized as well.

This year also marked a milestone for two institutions: The Ohio State University and the Arc Institute each celebrated their first-ever Blavatnik National Award Laureates.

Reflecting on the long-term impact of the Awards, Lifton listed the successes of the first cohort of scientists who received their Blavatnik Award twenty years earlier. "From this inaugural group of 14 honorees, eight now hold named and endowed chairs at institutions including Yale, Rockefeller, Cornell, Columbia and Cambridge. Five have been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, two to the National Academy of Medicine, six to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and one to the Royal Society of the UK. And subsequent to their Blavatnik Awards, they've won prizes such as the Shaw Prize, the Benjamin Franklin Medal and even the Fields Medal."

In his remarks, Professor Nicholas B. Dirks, President and CEO of The New York Academy of Sciences and Chair of the Awards' Scientific Advisory Council, recalled the origins of the Blavatnik Awards. The idea was inspired by Len Blavatnik's experience at the 2007 Nobel Prize ceremony, where the prestige of the occasion and the recognition of their lifelong discoveries prompted a question:

"What if exceptional scientists could be recognized earlier in their careers, at a pivotal moment when they were just beginning to build their own research programs, pursue ambitious scientific questions, and take creative risks? And so, twenty years ago, the Blavatnik Awards were born – a first-of-its-kind science prize dedicated to recognizing the most promising early-career scientists of their generation, administered by The New York Academy of Sciences."

Since 2007, the Blavatnik Awards have honored 539 scientists and awarded $21.5 million in unrestricted funding. At a time when intense competition for research funding makes it increasingly challenging for early-career scientists to establish independent programs and pursue innovative ideas, the Awards provide unrestricted prize funding that gives recipients the freedom to explore high-risk, high-reward research.

Beyond the lab, Blavatnik Awards honorees are using science to drive global economic growth. To date, Blavatnik Awards honorees have founded 52 companies, six of which are publicly traded, and collectively valued at more than $40 billion.

About the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists: blavatnikawards.org/about/

About the Blavatnik Family Foundation: blavatnikfoundation.org/about-us/  

About The New York Academy of Sciences: nyas.org/about-us/ 

NOTE TO EDITORS: Select ceremony collateral, including imagery, videos, graphics, and headshots, can be found in the 2026 Blavatnik Awards Press Kit.

SOURCE Blavatnik Family Foundation; The New York Academy of Sciences