Academy Honors 18 for Major Contributions to Science

WASHINGTON — The National Academy of Sciences will honor 18 individuals with awards recognizing their extraordinary scientific achievements in a wide range of fields spanning the physical, biological, social, and medical sciences.

Wolfgang Baumeister, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, will receive the Alexander Hollaender Award in Biophysics for his pioneering work in electron microscopy to advance structural cell biology. The award will be presented with a $20,000 prize.

Mahzarin Rustum Banaji, Harvard University, and Dan Jurafsky, Stanford University, will receive the Atkinson Prizes in Psychological and Cognitive Sciences. With these awards, the Academy recognizes Banaji for groundbreaking contributions to understanding implicit social cognition, and Jurafsky for landmark contributions to computational linguistics and the sociology of language. Each will receive a $100,000 prize.

Samuel Harvey Moseley, Jr., Quantum Circuits Inc., will receive the James Craig Watson Medal for his seminal work designing and developing technologies and instruments to advance astronomy. The medal is presented with a $25,000 prize, and $50,000 to support the recipient’s research.

John A. Rogers, Northwestern University, will receive the James Prize in Science and Technology Integration for pioneering bio-integrated technologies to advance biomedical research and clinical health care. This award is presented with a $50,000 prize.

Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, University of Pennsylvania, will receive the Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal for pioneering work in mRNA technology and vaccine development. The medal is presented with a $25,000 prize, and an additional $50,000 for research.

Barney S. Graham, formerly with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health, will receive the John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science for pioneering new strategies in vaccine design using nanoparticle and mRNA technologies. This year’s award, in the area of infectious diseases, is presented with a $25,000 prize.

Camillo De Lellis, Institute for Advanced Study, will receive the Maryam Mirzakhani Prize in Mathematics for innovative contributions to the study of Euler equations and concept of convex integration. The award is presented with a $20,000 prize.

Amit Sahai, University of California, Los Angeles, will receive the Michael and Sheila Held Prize for his pioneering work on cryptographic software obfuscations and its theoretical applications. The award is presented with a $100,000 prize.

Esther S. Takeuchi, Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory, will receive the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences for breakthrough contributions to our understanding of electrochemical energy. The award is presented with a $15,000 prize.

Mary L. Droser, University of California, Riverside, will receive the NAS Award in Early Earth and Life Sciences – Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal for her prominent role in advancing understanding of the Ediacaran and Paleozoic life and environment. The award is presented with a $10,000 prize.

Carrie Partch, University of California, Santa Cruz, will receive the NAS Award in Molecular Biology for her contributions to the molecular understanding of circadian rhythms. The award is presented with a $25,000 prize.

Nancy Kanwisher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology McGovern Institute for Brain Research, will receive the NAS Award in the Neurosciences for pioneering research that provides insight into the functional organization of the human brain. The award is presented with a $25,000 prize.

David Lobell, Stanford University, will receive the NAS Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences for groundbreaking research to address challenges in agriculture and the environment. The award is presented with a $100,000 prize.

Edward Chang, University of California, San Francisco, will receive the Pradel Research Award for scientific advances that have deepened our mechanistic understanding of speech perception and production. The award is presented with a $50,000 award to support neuroscience research.

Roozbeh Kiani, New York University, and Leah Somerville, Harvard University, will each receive a Troland Research Award. With these awards, the Academy recognizes Kiani for his seminal contributions to understanding decision-making processes, and Somerville for her pioneering research on how brain and psychological development are intertwined during adolescence. Each recipient is presented with a $75,000 prize to support their research.

The winners will be honored in a ceremony during the National Academy of Sciences’ 159th 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.