The Blavatnik National Awards honor America’s most innovative and promising faculty-rank scientists and engineers. Every year, one Blavatnik National Awards Laureate in each disciplinary category will receive $250,000 in unrestricted funds, and additional nominees will be recognized as Finalists.
Penn State is invited to nominate up to three outstanding young faculty members, one in each of the three disciplinary categories: Chemistry, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Life Sciences. The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists strives for nominee equality and diversity, and encourages institutions to consider nominations of women and members of other historically under-represented groups in science and engineering.
ELIGIBILITY
The nominee must:
- Have been born in or after 1982*.
- Hold a doctorate degree (PhD, DPhil, MD, DDS, DVM, etc.).
- Currently hold a faculty position at an invited institution in the United States.
- Currently conduct research as a principal investigator in one of the disciplinary categories in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, or Chemistry.
Nominating institutions are encouraged to consider candidates across the institution, focusing on the scope of the candidate’s work and its relevance within a given scientific category. For example, an institution can nominate a Chemistry nominee who is not based in the Chemistry Department, but is leading a research program in one of the disciplinary categories covered by the Chemistry section of the Blavatnik Awards.Previously nominated individuals who were not selected as Laureates in past Awards cycles may be nominated again.
*Age limit exceptions will be considered by the Academy in exceptional circumstances upon a detailed written submission from the nominating institution received by the Academy at blavatnikawards@nyas.org no later than Wednesday, November 8, 2023.
The Blavatnik Awards strongly encourages all those submitting nominations to the Awards—including institutional nominators, Scientific Advisory Council members, and past Blavatnik Awards Laureates—to diversify the population of candidates nominated for this Award.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
Nominees and their work as independent investigators will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
- Quality: The extent to which the work is reliable, valid, credible, and scientifically rigorous.
- Impact: The extent to which the work addresses an important problem, advances scientific progress, and is influential in the nominee’s field, related fields, or beyond, and/or has the potential to benefit society.
- Novelty: The extent to which the work challenges existing paradigms, establishes a new field or considerably expands on an existing field, employs original methodologies or concepts, and/or pursues an original question.
- Promise: The nominee has potential for further significant contributions to science, and the research program will generate further impactful and novel discoveries.
Interested applicants should send the following documents in sequence in one PDF file (File name: Last name_Blavatnik NYAS_2024.pdf no later than 4:00 p.m. on the internal submission deadline:
- CV
- 1000 word research statement. One figure illustrating the most significant results is allowed. Citations and figure caption do not count toward the word limit.
- Name, position, and institution for two individuals familiar with nominee’s scientific contributions who will provide letters of support.
nstitutional nominations must be submitted by the institution’s official nominator—the institution's President, Provost, or equivalent (or their official designee). Please do not contact or have someone contact the Foundation on your behalf. Questions or clarifications should be directed to Karen Kemirembe, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Foundation Relations (kuk195@psu.edu).