The New York Academy of Sciences continues its partnership with India’s Tata Group for the second annual Tata Transformation Prize.
Published January 8, 2025
By Kamala Murthy Senior Manager, Communications
On Friday, December 13, 2024 the Tata Group and The New York Academy of Sciences honored the 2024 Tata Transformation Prize Winners at an impressive award ceremony and dinner at the historic Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai.
Launched in 2023, the Tata Transformation Prize identifies and supports visionary scientists in India who are developing breakthrough technologies that address India’s most significant societal challenges in Food Security, Sustainability, and Healthcare. The ceremonial event was celebrated at this famous venue for the first time.
FOOD SECURITY: C. Anandharamakrishnan, PhD, CSIR – National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technologyhas pioneered a variety of rice fortified with multiple essential nutrients that simultaneously has a low glycemic index (GI) to address micronutrient malnutrition and blood sugar management for diabetics. Watch his film HERE.
SUSTAINABILITY: Amartya Mukhopadhyay, DPhil, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay is working to advance Sodium (Na)-ion battery technologies. His battery prototype is approximately 30% cheaper than Lithium (Li)-ion batteries and operates in a broader temperature range. His design is safer to store by creating air- and water-stable sodium-transition metal oxide cathodes and alloy-based anodes. Prof. Mukhopadhyay’s approach replaces toxic solvents with water to reduce production costs and environmental impact. Watch his film HERE.
HEALTHCARE: Raghavan Varadarajan, PhD, Indian Institute of Science is working to develop a cost-effective RSV vaccine that will allow for greater access to wide-spread deployment of vaccination programs. His scientific advances will surmount the challenges that have hindered RSV vaccine development for decades and will provide broad, longer-lasting protection against RSV infection. Watch his film HERE.
A Night of Distinguished International Guests
Harish Bhat, former brand custodian for Tata Sons and book author, served as the ceremony presenter. The evening’s Chief Guest, Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and Guest Speaker, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the former Chief Scientist for the World Health Organization (WHO), both gave keynote addresses.
Other distinguished guests included Noel Tata, Chairman of Tata Trusts; Prof. Désirée van Gorp, Professor of International Business and Chair of the International Advisory Board at Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands; and AI Pioneer and Turing Award Winner, Dr. Raj Reddy of Carnegie Mellon University. Several members of the Tata Transformation Prize’s international jury attended, including Prof. José Miguel Aguilera Radic from Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Dr. Jianying Hu from IBM, Dr. Carolyn Duran from Apple, Dr. Sandra Barteit from the University of Heidelberg in Germany, Ankur Bhatnagar from Biocon, Prabhakaran Doiraraj from the Centre for Chronic Disease Control (India), and Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, founder of India’s first Life Sciences research park.
The Tata Transformation Prize, a Catalyst for Innovative Solutions
In his opening remarks, N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman of the Board of Tata Sons, said, “In a technology-first future, India needs a transformation of vision to solve the big problems at its scale. We need our scientists driving deep, fundamental research and innovators pushing beyond the margins of new technology. That is the aim of the Tata Transformation Prize: to both recognize and support breakthrough innovations, developed in research labs across India, that are ready for wide-scale deployment to address India’s challenges.”
Nicholas B. Dirks, President and CEO of The New York Academy of Sciences, followed the Chairman’s remarks: “We are excited to continue this unique collaboration with Tata Sons, which serves as a catalyst for innovative solutions to India’s most urgent challenges. The Prize addresses India’s critical societal needs by honoring India’s most outstanding scientists who genuinely want to make a difference while supporting India’s advancement as a world leader.” Dirks also recognized the jury, which included eminent scientists, clinicians, technologists, and engineers from world-renowned organizations and academic institutions across five continents, and the role of the Prize’s Scientific Advisory Council, who serve as ambassadors for the program.
Intending to drive impactful innovation and scale-up implementation of high-reward research, each Winner received INR 2 crores (approximately US$240,000) in prize money and was honored with a Tata Transformation Prize medal at the ceremony.
Roopa Purushothaman, Chief Economist for Tata, delivered closing remarks for the ceremony.
The day prior, the Tata Group and the Academy hosted a symposium featuring the previous year’s Winners at a symposium at Bombay House, the head office of the Tata Group. The 2023 Winners showcased their scientific progress and new collaborations since winning the prize last year.
Photo Gallery
(Left to Right) Nicholas Dirks, President and CEO of the Academy, Healthcare Winner, Dr. Raghavan Varadarajan, Prof. Amartya Mukhopadhyay, Dr. C Anandharamakrishnan, and N. Chandrasekaran, the Chairman of Tata Sons.The Chairman of Tata Sons, N. Chandrasekaran, gives the opening address at the Tata Transformation Prize Ceremony.Academy President and CEO, Nicholas Dirks, speaks about the Academy’s partnership with Tata on the Tata Transformation Prize.Dr. Raghavan Varadarajan is presented with the Tata Transformation Prize medal by the Chairman and Dr. Souyma Swaminathan.Food Security Winner, Dr. C. Anandharamakrishnan is presented with a medal by Prof. Ajay Sood and Tata’s Chairman, N. Chandrasekaran.Sustainability Winner, Prof. Amartya Mukhopadhyay presents his research on sodium-ion battery technology.Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Former Chief Scientist of the WHO spoke about global threats to health.Prof. Ajay Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, speaks about science for societal impact.(Left to right) Ralf Speth, Former CEO of Tata Motors with Dr. Carolyn Duran from Apple (Tata Transformation Prize jury member), and N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons.The administrative team of the Tata Transformation Prize.(Left to Right) Prof. K. VijayRaghavan, Emeritus Professor & Former Director of the National Center for Biological Sciences leads a panel discussion with the 2023 Winners at the first symposium held at Bombay House: Prof. Anurag S. Rathore, IIT Delhi; Prof. Shilpi Sharma, IIT Delhi; Prof. Purnananda Guptasarma, IISER Mohali.Academy Staff (Left to Right) Sanaz Masserat, Dr. Sonya Dougal, Kamala Murthy, and Academy President and CEO, Nicholas Dirks.
The 2024 recipient of the Ross Prize in Molecular Medicine is exploring the interactions between cancer cells and the nervous system.
Published November 11, 2024
By Megan Prescott, PhD Program Manager for Life Sciences
Michelle Monje, MD, PhD
What does it take to pioneer a new field of science? For Michelle Monje, MD, PhD, the key is humility, collaboration, and resilience.
Prof. Monje, the Milan Gambhir Professor of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine, was awarded the 2024 Ross Prize in Molecular Medicine, administered by the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and the journal Molecular Medicine, for her outstanding contributions to research relating to the neuroscience of cancer and its implications for therapy.
“Winning the Ross Prize is an enormous honor,” said Prof. Monje. “It’s wonderful to see cancer neuroscience being recognized in this way because it has so much potential for clinical translation and the potential to improve outcomes for very difficult-to-treat cancers. I’m just absolutely delighted to see this recognition shine a light on this emerging field.”
The emerging field of cancer neuroscience explores interactions between cancer cells and the components of the nervous system—neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, microglia, Schwann cells and peripheral nerves—and the effects of these interactions on cancer initiation, progression, the tumor immune microenvironment and metastasis. It differs from closely related fields like neuro-oncology in distinct ways.
“Cancer neuroscience is a field at the intersection of neuroscience and cancer biology and it recognizes, what is increasingly appreciated, as the critical role of the nervous system in driving malignancy,” Prof. Monje explains. “Neuro-oncology concerns itself with a particular type of cancer emerging from, or occurring within, the nervous system. Cancer neuroscience includes not only those tumors, but also really every cancer, as it’s influenced by either the central or peripheral nervous system.”
Humility, Collaboration, Resilience
Prof. Monje received her MD and PhD in neuroscience from Stanford University and completed her residency training in neurology at the Mass General Brigham program in Boston. She then returned to Stanford for a clinical fellowship in pediatric neuro-oncology. She chose this field because she “recognized very early on that our therapies for many diseases of the nervous system and especially brain cancers are truly insufficient”, in part because “there’s still so much to be learned and so much that is unknown; I felt that in order to help my patients with brain cancers that I needed a much deeper basic understanding of the normal processes from which these tumors emerge,” she explained.
Prof. Monje believes her open-minded approach to her work is a contributing factor for her success.
“I’m constantly humbled by the lack of treatment options I have for most of my patients in neuro-oncology, the kinds of toxicities that those therapies can cause to the nervous system, and our need to do better by understanding more,” she said.
A crucial factor for success in an emerging field that intersects multiple disciplines is collaboration.
“Reaching out to expert immunologists and learning as much as I can from them has been really valuable, as we’ve discovered potential new therapeutic strategies for these terrible brain cancers that occur in children,” she says, adding that her work with Crystal Mackall, MD, has led to the first-ever CAR-T cell clinical trial for children with diffuse midline glioma (DIPG).
Prof. Monje also cites resilience as a primary driver in her success.
“The newest and sometimes most interesting ideas are the hardest ones to get through publication acceptance. It’s often hard when you have a new perspective, but if you believe in it, and you believe it’s true and important, you have to stick with it and keep beating that drum,” she says.
Connecting Neuroscience, Immunology, and Neuro-Oncology
Prof. Monje is committed to broadening her understanding of cancer neuroscience. Her research focuses on the connections between neuroscience, immunology, and neuro-oncology. Specifically, she studies the intricate communication between neurons and glial cells in normal and disease brain function. Her work has revealed how cancer cells can exploit this process to drive tumor growth in brain cancers. She is excited to see this field grow and the potential for the development of new therapies for cancer patients.
“There’s a fascinating crosstalk between the nervous system, the immune system, and cancers that I think are critically important, not only for the fundamental ways that these tumors grow and progress, but because they need to be understood in order for us to successfully leverage really promising immune therapies,” she says. “So, I’m very excited about this intersection of three fields that is occurring within cancer neuroscience.”
Exploring how cancer takes advantage of normal mechanisms of the development and plasticity of the brain, the field of cancer neuroscience can also lead to insight into the mechanisms of normal brain development that are important for learning and memory. Additionally, this may better our understanding of the development of other diseases ranging from epilepsy to opiate addiction.
“There’s been a wide range of implications for the lessons we’ve learned, from cancer, by studying the neuroscience,” Prof. Monje explains.
Ultimately, for Prof. Monje, the greatest driver of her success in advancing the field of cancer neuroscience is her patients.
“I feel so inspired after returning from clinic to ask very specific questions in the laboratory. Not only about the disease, but also about the normal nervous system,” she explains. “Throughout my career, the privilege of taking care of patients has really guided the basic science that we do.”
Blavatnik Regional Awards Finalist Nicole Lake, PhD, is now a strong advocate for postdoctoral researchers. She offers advice on how postdocs should advocate for one another.
Published September 17, 2024
By Nicole Lake, PhD Academy Contributor
As postdocs, we are not just passive participants in our journey. We are active shapers of our own experience. We must learn and apply a wide range of skills, from research and teaching to networking and time management.
Another crucial skill we need is self-advocacy – standing up for our needs. Whether negotiating for better resources, obtaining support to attend a conference, securing mentorship, or balancing work-life demands, self-advocacy is vital for our postdoctoral success and well-being. As we move through our postdoc, some of us will also find ourselves stepping into a new role: advocating for others. Whether it’s pushing for better representation, compensation, childcare support, or benefits, advocacy for postdocs by postdocs also plays a central role in shaping the postdoc experience.
During my postdoc, I navigated a journey that saw me grow from advocating for myself to advocating for my peers in the postdoc community. My experience taught me that advocacy goes beyond identifying needs; it also requires the confidence and understanding of how to ask for your needs to be met effectively. Whether advocating for yourself or pushing for change within a department or university, framing an ask around mutual benefits is often key. Before making a request, I consider the other person’s perspective: understanding their viewpoint, finding common ground, and showing how my request will benefit them can often lead to a solution.
Advocating for Fellow Postdocs
My role as a Yale Postdoctoral Association (YPA) Co-Chair had the most significant impact on my advocacy perspective as a postdoc. In this role, I was privileged to advocate for over 1,000 postdocs. The YPA has a proud history of advocating for positive change for the postdocs it serves, and one of the achievements I’m most proud of during my term was securing salary increases to reflect the value of postdocs and their living costs better. I took away two critical lessons from this experience:
1) the power of data-driven advocacy and
2) the importance that the allyship of faculty and staff plays in advocacy success.
In academia, we rely on data to support our hypotheses, and I’ve found this approach equally powerful for advocacy. To better understand, uncover, and address unmet needs in our community, we initiated a university-wide postdoc survey on topics including cost-of-living considerations, and available resources for postdocs, to obtain data, enable data-driven discussions with university leadership, and strengthen our case for change. This survey was a collaborative effort with the postdoctoral office, representing an example of allyship between postdocs and the university, working together to achieve a common goal: improving the postdoc experience.
It’s important to acknowledge that the success of our advocacy didn’t happen in isolation. Within the YPA it was built on the groundwork laid by previous leaders who, for example, established channels for regular dialogue with university leadership—these channels were critical for communicating our requests. Our time as a postdoc is limited, and we may not always see the outcomes of our efforts advocating for better representation, benefits, compensation, and beyond. However, it’s important to remember that our efforts are cumulative and often provide a foundation for future advocates to build upon, contributing to progress long after we’ve moved on.
A Skill Developed Over Time
Finally, I want to share that self-advocacy does not come naturally to me but rather is a skill I’ve had to develop over time. Advocating for others has always come more easily than advocating for myself. Like any other skill, self-advocacy is learned—it requires practice, patience, and persistence. However, it is a skill worth cultivating, given its impact on your career and well-being.
Overall, my journey has shown me the power of advocacy – not only for improving our circumstances but also for improving the experience of others. Whether you’re advocating for yourself or pushing for change to benefit others, advocacy has an essential place in the postdoctoral experience.
This piece published on the National Postdoctoral Association member blog as part of 2024 National Postdoc Appreciation Week. Current Academy Members can receive a 20% discount on a National Postdoctoral Association postdoc individual membership by emailing info@nyas.org and requesting the NPA membership discount code
Blavatnik Regional Awards Laureate Raghavendra Pradyumna Pothukuchi, PhD, had to advocate for himself to find the right work-life balance. He offers advice so fellow postdocs can do the same.
Published September 17, 2024
By Raghavendra Pradyumna Pothukuchi, PhD Academy Contributor
Raghavendra Pradyumna Pothukuchi, PhD, celebrates his wife’s birthday with their two children.
We all enjoy science and research, but it’s hard to deny that academic life is grueling. This is especially so as a postdoc, which is a great springboard for one’s career but also brings unique challenges.
Making the most of a postdoc inevitably requires significant effort. Couple this with personal needs, goals, and responsibilities, and you have a fragile contraption of sorts, ready to fall in many ways.
My choice of being a postdoc was born out of an abruptly terminated job search during the COVID-19 fallout. When I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2020, my kids were 1 and 4, and my dear wife, a fellow PhD in computer science, would soon opt out of work due to long COVID.
My postdoc would be on brain-computer interfaces, and classical and quantum frameworks for cognitive models. It’s exciting — but very new and challenging. I had to balance my research with personal commitments including childcare, my wife’s health, providing long-distance support to my parents living in my home country of India, traveling to help my father while he was being treated for cancer, and, of course, managing my own well-being.
Finding Work-Life Balance
One way that has helped me in making the postdoc process work, is self-advocacy. You are (or can be) your best ally and advocate on issues that matter to you, whether they are about yourself or those that you care about. The definition of being a self-advocate means “identifying your needs and communicating them clearly to help others understand how they can support you”.
There are many valuable resources on self-advocacy, including those at the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA). I’d like to share what I learned from my experience. The first step to self-advocacy is to identify what you need, professionally and personally. These could be resources, compensation, special needs, processes, projects you should be on, or even assistance from people, like teammates and mentors. This step is not easy—it requires time and thought.
One could start with high-level tangible goals such as, readiness for academic job searches within two years, allocating hours for childcare, improving wellbeing in a community you care about, etc.; then move to identify the specific needs to accomplish them. It’s helpful to identify and talk to various stakeholders, such as family and mentors, with whom your plans intersect. On the professional side, a good starting point is the postdoc mentoring plan, which makes career goals and means explicit.
Advocating for Yourself
In my case, I needed a mentor who understood my situation, a system with flexible schedules, reasonable compensation and benefits to support my family, and the leeway to explore new fields. These needs weren’t exhaustive or static, since life changes. However, to the extent possible, it pays to be foresighted so that you don’t appear capricious or importunate, and importantly, that you ask for what actually helps you.
The next step is to identify the people that you would communicate your needs with. This is critical. They should be able to provide what you need and be willing to help. In several cases, this could be your mentor, but it doesn’t have to be. For example, while my mentor was the right person to talk to about compensation and work schedules, it wasn’t so for childcare or other benefits that are set by my university.
Sometimes when asking for policy-level changes, it helps to find others who share your cause. This could be your local postdoctoral association, or the NPA. When I was a grad student, I was concerned about the wellbeing of students in my academic community (computer architecture). At a conference, I met with a fellow student who shared the same cause, and our joint effort led to the creation of a new student association with this mission, CASA. This wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t met my co-founder.
The last step is to articulate your needs. This means clearly and politely stating your needs, participating in good faith, and being open. If needed, convey the value you bring to the group.
Raghavendra Pradyumna Pothukuchi, PhD, (second from left) with his lab members.
Identify Your Non-Negotiables
It’s useful to identify which of your needs are non-negotiable. However, it’s also possible that some needs can’t be met, at least not fully or immediately. Be open to alternatives. In my case, my starting postdoc salary was good but not great for my family needs. I brought this up with my mentor, who understood my situation and recommended that we apply for a fellowship, the NSF and CRA computing innovation fellowship, which I received. This took time, but it helped immensely, even beyond the finances.
I hope my experience inspires you to self-advocate. My postdoc journey didn’t happen without making hard choices or giving up things I loved. But I’m glad about my progress—personal and professional (the Blavatnik Regional Award for Young Scientists being one!), and the things I was able to hold on to, and pickup. Self-advocacy played an important role in my journey.
Looking forward, I will continue to practice it as I transition to a tenure-track faculty position at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
This piece published on the National Postdoctoral Association member blog is part of 2024 National Postdoc Appreciation Week. Current Academy Members can receive a 20% discount on a National Postdoctoral Association postdoc individual membership by emailing info@nyas.org and requesting the NPA membership discount code
Blavatnik Regional Awards Finalist Amy R. Strom, PhD, offers advice on the subtle differences postdocs must consider when finding work-life balance.
Published September 17, 2024
By Amy R. Strom, PhD Academy Contributor
Amy Strom and partner Akshay Tambe.
Is work-life balance truly harder for postdocs than other professions? The short answer is yes, and there’s a reason you’ll find so many “How I Found Balance” articles written by academics. These narratives often focus on the number of hours spent at work versus at home, which is, of course, an essential aspect of balance. However, this narrow focus misses a crucial component: the role of the employer in shaping the work environment.
Achieving balance in the face of obstacles is not just about personal discipline; it often hinges on the resources and support provided by the institution. We should be building structures that empower individuals to create a balanced life.
My own journey in science has required a long-distance relationship during my postdoc, between New Jersey and California. I have had to carefully organize my project timelines and fund cross-country flights in order to spend time with my partner, but even with these personal sacrifices I quickly ran out of leave.
An Individualized Approach
Then I advocated for myself to my mentor and the University to be able to work remotely from out of state without the time away from campus being counted as vacation. As an experimentalist, remote work can be complicated to coordinate, so I am grateful to my partner, to my mentor and to the administrators in my department for their support in identifying a solution that works for my personal situation.
Perhaps establishing this solution and sharing the story will aid postdocs in similar situations in the future (long-distance relationships among academics are not rare), but more practically, it is important for each individual to get the support they need to enact their own personal solutions. I credit my own navigation of my challenges not in small part to coalescing with a group of fellow women grad students and postdocs who face different but equally complex challenges. Together we discuss the difficulties we face and help each other brainstorm potential solutions. Women in Science groups and other shared identity groups provide not only a sense of belonging but also a platform for advocacy.
Postdocs are not a monophyletic clade. We are women, men, nonbinary, single, partnered, married; we are sexually, racially, and culturally diverse. Such diversity means that a one-size-fits-all approach to work-life balance is ineffective at best and harmful at worst. This is where mutual and intersectional advocacy becomes crucial. By recognizing our shared challenges and working together, we can push for changes that benefit us all.
Amy with a close group of women scientists. From left: Amy Strom, Claire Weaver, Jessica Zhao, Lindsay Becker, Anita Donlic, Yoonji Kim, Sofia Quinodoz, and Hailey Tanner
Postdocs and Unionization
In the summer of 2024, postdocs at my home institution, Princeton University, voted to become part of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, an American union that has grown to represent more than just the auto industry. This victory required immense effort from many current postdocs, demonstrating the power of collective action.
Unionization will allow us to gather centralized information about our needs and bargain more effectively with the University for policy changes that will benefit us as a group and as individuals. Now just a few weeks later, a survey is collecting data on the most pressing issues we face, from pay equity to green card applications to family leave policies. I enthusiastically look forward to the additional support and benefits that Princeton will enact based on these data.
So, this National Postdoc Appreciation Week, let’s truly appreciate postdocs. Let’s listen to their unique stories, empathize with their individual challenges, and then make real, tangible, institutional changes to support them. Acknowledging the diversity of experiences among postdocs is the first step towards creating a more equitable academic environment where each individual can achieve their own balance.
This piece published on the National Postdoctoral Association member blog is part of 2024 National Postdoc Appreciation Week. Current Academy Members can receive a 20% discount on a National Postdoctoral Association postdoc individual membership by emailing info@nyas.org and requesting the NPA membership discount code
Self-boosting vaccines. Regeneration of diseased tissues and missing limbs. Organs on a chip.
Published March 06, 2024
By David Freeman Academy Contributor
Such life-saving advances in biotechnology—some already in existence and others in the works–took the spotlight on February 8, 2024, when thousands of attendees around the world gathered online for the Paul Janssen Award Symposium in honor of Robert S. Langer, ScD, a renowned chemical engineer and entrepreneur best known for his pioneering work in drug delivery systems and tissue engineering.
Dr. Langer, whose work has led to new treatments for heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and other ailments, is the 2023 recipient of the Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research. Given annually by Johnson & Johnson to a scientist or scientists who have made a “transformational contribution toward the improvement of human health,” the award includes a sculpture and a $200,000 cash prize. Eight of the 23 scientists who have received the award have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.
Impactful Research from MIT
Hosted by The New York Academy of Scientists and the Dr. Paul Janssen Award, with sponsorship by J&J, the event featured a keynote address by Dr. Langer. It also included talks by a trio of eminent researchers who trained with him at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is one of a handful of faculty members who hold the prestigious title of Institute Professor.
The other researchers, who detailed their own research and described Dr. Langer’s contributions as a scientist and mentor, were Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D., professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Connecticut and CEO of the Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering; Kristi Anseth, Ph.D., professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Colorado; and Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering and medicine at Columbia University.
The event began with remarks from Academy president and CEO Nicholas B. Dirks who hailed Dr. Langer as “a luminary figure” whose work “reflects a visionary spirit that advances science while demonstrating the importance of this research for the public good, inspiring the next generation of innovators and scientists to follow in his path.” Following Professor Dirks, William N. Hait, M.D., Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Chief External Innovation and Medical Officer, and a member of the Johnson & Johnson Executive Committee, praised Dr. Langer for his groundbreaking work at the intersection of biomaterials and biotechnology. He also highlighted Dr. Langer’s remarkable productivity, with over 1,400 patents issued or pending and nearly 1,600 publications.
Blazing a Trail in Biotechnology
Dr. Langer said he was humbled to have received the award. He explained the roundabout way he got his start in biotechnology. After getting a chemical engineering degree from Cornell University in 1974, he said, he turned multiple job offers from oil companies. “I just didn’t want to spend my life doing that,” he recalled. He wrote to universities, medical schools, and hospitals, hoping to land a job in science curriculum development or in medicine. He got nowhere, he said, because he lacked the right pedigree for such work.
Ultimately, Judah Folkman, a Boston surgeon with a reputation for hiring “unusual people” to work in his lab, brought on the young engineer with the task of developing tiny particles that release molecules that block the growth of blood vessels within tumors. Blocking this growth, the “anti-angiogenesis” theory went, would starve tumors of the oxygen and nutrients they need to grow.
Many scientists said the task was impossible. But Dr. Langer was undeterred. “I spent several years working on this, and I literally found several hundred ways to get this to not work,” he said. “But eventually we got one way to get it to work, and I was able to make these tiny little particles.”
The First Anti-angiogenesis Cancer Drug to Win FDA Approval
In a 1976 paper published in the journal Science, Dr. Langer showed that microparticles that deliver macromolecules could indeed inhibit blood vessel formation in tumors. Years later, he patented the technology, and in 2004 Avastin (bevacizumab) became the first anti-angiogenesis cancer drug to win FDA approval. It and other drugs based on the technology are now used to treat various cancers, as well as the vision-robbing eye disorders macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, which are caused by abnormal vascularization in the back of the eye.
Dr. Langer and his collaborators went on to develop polymer materials that could be tailored to release drugs within the body continuously at a specified rate—a functionality that they thought might prove useful for the treatment of brain cancer. As with the earlier anti-angiogenesis research, other researchers expressed skepticism about the safety and effectiveness of these synthetic degradable polymers. But Dr. Langer and his collaborators, including Dr. Laurencin, didn’t give up; in 1996 the FDA approved Gliadel for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme, the deadly brain malignancy. It was the first new drug in two decades to receive approval for the treatment of brain cancer and the first ever approved for local chemotherapy, according to Dr. Langer.
Applications to Covid
Dr. Langer went on to help in the development of a technology to immunize people against Covid without the need for repeated injections, using 3D printing to fabricate microneedle-equipped transdermal patches that deliver periodic “pulses” of vaccine without the need for repeated booster shots. Ongoing research, he said, will find out if related technologies might be possible to engineer synthetic tissues and organs that would replace diseased ones. “You could combine cells with materials and theoretically make almost any organ,” he said, including skin to treat burns and diabetic ulcers.
Dr. Langer said, “I’m incredibly proud of my students, who received all kinds of awards and great jobs”—and the three speakers returned the compliment to their former mentor.
An “unmatched record of brilliance”
Dr. Vunjak-Novakovic said Dr. Langer has an “unmatched record of brilliance.” With his more than 400,000 citations and 1,600 papers, she said, he is “the fourth-most cited scientist of any kind in the world and the most cited engineer in human history…About 400 of his 1,000 trainees are today faculty at prime universities around the world.”
Said Dr. Anseth, “He was always very encouraging. To this day I’m inspired by his ability to be available. Usually, his response time is in minutes and not hours.”
Dr. Anseth said she had a longstanding interest not only in developing new disease-fighting biomaterials but also in exploiting patient-specific cells or tissues with the goal of moving from off-the-shelf drugs into personalized, sex-specific medicine. “A lot of times in medicine, we scale down products, so we think of a woman as a small man…but that is not the case at all.”
Different Affects for Males and Females
Many ailments affect males and females differently, she said, including mental illness, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease. She recounted her and her collaborators’ work on valvular heart disease in particular, an ailment that traditionally has required surgery to replace the diseased heart valve to restore cardiac function. Men’s aortic valves tend to develop calcified deposits, she said, whereas women’s tend to thicken and become more fibrotic. Dr. Anseth wondered: Could valvular disease be treated medically rather than surgically? Should women with valve disease get different treatment than men?
Research showed that when cells taken from diseased valves were cultured in the lab, the genes expressed by the cells changed markedly, thus making it hard to understand the disease process in vivo. But when the cells were placed on newly developed hydrogel materials rather than the hard plastics typically used for cell culture, she said, they behaved as they did inside the body. That gave the researchers a good model for studying valvular disease—which, in turn, might help lead the way to drugs that could transform diseased heart cells into healthy, quiescent ones.
“We designed in our hydrogel systems ways that could recapitulate these [sex-linked] differences where the females would get lots of fibrosis and collagen and the males would get much more calcification,” she said. “And we can use this for screening different types of drugs.”
Organs on a Chip
Dr. Vunjak-Novakovic described recent work with human stem cells, including their use in tissue regeneration research and the creation of so-called organs on a chip, which emulate organ function outside the body. Recently, she’s been involved in research aiming to find and develop a system for restoring the health of human donor lungs so that more can be implanted and fewer discarded. Studies with pig and human lungs have shown that it is possible to improve the performance of diseased lungs, she said.
Dr. Vunjak-Novakovic concluded her remarks by recounting a list of 10 life lessons she had learned from Dr. Langer. Among these were: “dream big and take big risks; work on something you’re passionate about and things take care of themselves; pursue science that can benefit people; and work hard and be strong and never give up.”
Dr. Laurencin said Dr. Langer had taught him not to confuse activity for accomplishment, and that “everything you do should be extremely meaningful.” He praised Dr. Langer for inspiring generations of researchers and helping them balance their research with family life. “Bob Langer rubs people the right way,” he said.
Nine outstanding researchers were recipients of the 2024 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK, with the funds totaling £480,000.
The 2024 Awards recognise scientific advances driven by researchers who have:
Used new research in RNA structure to improve crop resilience
Detected water and other life-signalling molecules from planets beyond the solar system
Designed new enzymes never before seen in nature or a lab
Encoded photons with information in new ways that enable the possibility for high-capacity quantum communication networks for the first time
Heriot-Watt University in Scotland and the John Innes Centre in Norwich, England, are honoured for the first time.
Five of the nine honourees come from ethnic minority groups of the UK academic community.
London | 17 January 2024 – Today, the Blavatnik Family Foundation and The New York Academy of Sciences have announced the nine recipients of the 2024 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK. The grants, totaling £480,000, recognize research that is transforming medicine, technology, and our understanding of the world across three categories: Chemical Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Life Sciences.
This year’s Laureates, selected by an independent jury of expert scientists across the UK, will each receive £100,000 in unrestricted funds:
Green
Professor Anthony P. Green, an organic chemist from The University of Manchester, has been named the Chemical Sciences Laureate for his discoveries in designing and engineering new enzymes, with valuable catalytic functions previously unknown in nature that address societal needs. Recent examples include the development of biocatalysts to produce COVID-19 therapies, to break down plastics, and to use visible light to drive chemical reactions.
Nair
Professor Rahul R. Nair, a materials physicist at The University of Manchester, was named Laureate in Physical Sciences & Engineering for developing novel membranes based on two-dimensional (2D) materials that will enable energy-efficient separation and filtration technologies. Using graphene and other 2D materials, his research aims to study the transport of water, organic molecules, and ions at the nanoscale, exploring its potential applications to address societal challenges, including water filtration and other separation technologies.
McGranahan
Dr. Nicholas McGranahan, a computational biologist from University College London (UCL), was named the Life Sciences Laureate. His research explores how to harness evolutionary principles to understand cancers and why tumours are so difficult to treat. His work also aims to understand why and how tumours spread to other parts of the body and to explore the interaction between cancer and the immune system. His work is intended to inform clinical decision-making, identify determinants of treatment resistance, and promote the development of personalized immunotherapies.
Now in its seventh year, the Awards are the largest unrestricted prizes available to UK scientists aged 42 or younger, donating £3.3 million to scientists across UK academia since their inception. Internationally recognised by the scientific community, the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists are instrumental in expanding the engagement and recognition of young scientists and provide the support and encouragement needed to drive scientific innovation for the next generation.
The jury also selected two Finalists from each category, who will each receive £30,000:
Fernanda Duarte, PhD, from the University of Oxford (Chemical Sciences)
Samuel D. Stranks, DPhil, from the University of Cambridge (Chemical Sciences)
Jayne Birkby, PhD, from the University of Oxford (Physical Sciences & Engineering)
Mehul Malik, PhD, from Heriot-Watt University (Physical Sciences & Engineering)
Tanmay Bharat, PhD, from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Life Sciences)
Yiliang Ding, PhD, from the John Innes Centre (Life Sciences)
This is the first year that Heriot-Watt University and the John Innes Centre were recognised by the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK. The 2024 Awards received 84 nominations from 40 academic and research institutions.
“Providing recognition and funding early in a scientist’s career can make the difference between discoveries that remain in the lab and those that make transformative scientific breakthroughs,” said Sir Leonard Blavatnik, Founder and Chairman of Access Industries and Head of the Blavatnik Family Foundation. “We are proud that the Awards have promoted both UK science and the careers of many brilliant young scientists and we look forward to their additional discoveries in the years ahead.”
Professor Nicholas B. Dirks, President and CEO of The New York Academy of Sciences and Chair of the Awards’ Scientific Advisory Council, noted, “From studying cancer to identifying water in far-off planets, to laying the groundwork for futuristic quantum communications systems, to making enzymes never seen before in a lab or in nature, this year’s Laureates and Finalists are pushing the boundaries of science and working to make the world a better place. Thank you to this year’s jury for sharing their time and expertise in selecting these daring and bold scientists as the winning Laureates and Finalists of the 2024 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK.”
The Blavatnik Awards in the UK sit alongside their global counterparts, the Blavatnik National Awards and the Blavatnik Regional Awards in the United States, and the Blavatnik Awards in Israel, all of which honour and support exceptional early-career scientists. By the close of 2024, the Blavatnik Awards will have awarded prizes totalling US$17.2 million. About 60% of all recipients are immigrants to the country in which they were recognised; honourees hail from 54 countries across six continents, reflecting the Blavatnik Family Foundation’s recognition that groundbreaking science is a global enterprise.
Blavatnik Awards scholars are driving economic growth by embarking on new scientific trajectories to pursue high-risk, high-reward scientific research. To date, Blavatnik Awards honourees have founded 72 companies. After recognition by the Blavatnik Awards, 30% of past honourees obtained a patent or filed a patent application, 75% have started a new research direction, and 11% have started a new collaboration with another Blavatnik Awards honouree.
The 2024 Blavatnik Awards in the UK Laureates and Finalists will be honoured at a black-tie gala dinner and award ceremony at Banqueting House in Whitehall, London, on 27 February 2024; Professor Irene Tracey, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, will serve as ceremony presenter. The following day, on 28 February 2024 from 11:00 to 17:00 GMT, the honourees will present their research with a series of short, interactive lectures at a free public symposium at the RSA House located at 8 John Adam St., London. To attend the symposium, click HERE to register.
About the Laureates
Chemical Sciences
Anthony P. Green, PhD, The University of Manchester – Designing and engineering new enzymes with functions beyond those found in nature to make the materials that society needs
As Professor of Organic and Biological Chemistry at The University of Manchester, Professor Anthony P. Green studies and designs enzymes – nature’s catalysts – that speed up almost all of the biochemical processes needed for life. He was recognised for the targeted engineering of enzymes to catalyse new chemical reactions not possible using conventional techniques. Building from fundamentals of synthetic chemistry, Professor Green designs and evolves bespoke enzymes to perform valuable chemical reactions, unlocking synthetic pathways never seen before in chemistry labs or in nature. His research allows the chemical industry to develop more efficient and environmentally benign ways to solve global challenges, from making new pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, or biofuels to breaking down environmental pollutants such as plastics.
Physical Sciences & Engineering
Rahul R. Nair, PhD, The University of Manchester – Studying two-dimensional materials to explore their potential applications in water filtration and other separation technologies
As Professor of Materials Physics and Carlsberg/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair at The University of Manchester, Professor Rahul R. Nair conducts research in two-dimensional (2D) material-based membranes, using the technology to solve real-world global challenges. Professor Nair’s work on graphene oxide and other 2D material membranes highlights their potential in various real-world applications: water filtration and seawater desalination, organic solvent nanofiltration, and intelligent membranes for filtration and biomedical uses. Additionally, his research has provided valuable insights into the movement of water and other molecules in nanocapillaries, as those movements differ from their behaviour on the macro scale.
Life Sciences
Nicholas McGranahan, PhD, University College London (UCL) – Harnessing evolutionary principles to understand cancers, tumour development, and metastasis, laying the foundation for developing new treatment approaches
Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide; for each patient, cancer manifests differently, but it is always an uncertain diagnosis. Computational biologist and Principal Research Fellow at University College London (UCL), Dr. Nicholas McGranahan, was recognised for developing computational analyses to understand how tumours have developed and how they might be treated. Dr. McGranahan’s work has laid a foundation for exploring tumour development as an evolutionary process. He has developed tools to permit researchers to understand the genetic faults that have accumulated during a tumour’s development and to evaluate how these can be harnessed to predict the tumour’s future trajectory. His tools also allow researchers to determine how we might design more effective cancer treatments, which are specific to each individual tumour.
About the Finalists
Chemical Sciences
Fernanda Duarte, PhD, University of Oxford – Developing cutting-edge computational tools to simulate chemical reactions and design new molecules for future therapeutics
Professor Fernanda Duarte, Associate Professor of Computational Organic Chemistry at the University of Oxford, is developing groundbreaking computational tools to simulate chemical reactions, optimise chemical synthesis, and guide the design of new molecules. Professor Duarte integrates molecular modelling with advances in computer science to address pressing challenges in computational chemistry. A key application of Professor Duarte’s work is the identification of new therapeutic agents to address global health challenges. The traditional drug discovery process is time consuming and costly, but through her new techniques, Professor Duarte can screen and analyse large chemical libraries quickly, identifying potential drug candidates before the rigors of experimental testing.
Samuel D. Stranks, DPhil, University of Cambridge – Improving the efficiency of next-generation solar cells through studying the behaviour and stability of their key component, perovskite materials
Traditional silicon-based solar cell technology has reached an efficiency plateau. Next-generation solar cells based on perovskite materials hold extraordinary potential to improve solar panel efficiency. Despite their high efficiency, perovskite solar cells have several technical challenges to address before they can be widely deployed commercially. These include pushing performances to their potential efficiency limits and stopping performance degradation over long-term operation. Professor Samuel D. Stranks, Professor of Optoelectronics at the University of Cambridge, has developed novel techniques to study the optical and electronic properties of novel perovskite semiconductors to inform the design of low-cost, high-performance and stable technologies to drive society’s next-generation energy transition.
Physical Sciences & Engineering
Jayne Birkby, PhD, University of Oxford – Detecting water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet with robust evidence, for the first time
For centuries, the question of life beyond Earth has captivated human imagination. Today, thanks to the tireless efforts of astrophysicists like Professor Jayne Birkby, Associate Professor of Exoplanetary Science and Tutorial Fellow in Physics at Brasenose College at the University of Oxford, this inquiry is no longer a matter of speculation. Professor Birkby was recognised for detecting water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet – a planet that is beyond the solar system – with robust evidence, for the first time, and continuously advancing cutting-edge spectroscopy and imaging techniques for exoplanet research. Professor Birkby’s work accelerates the quest to identify life-signalling molecules like oxygen, methane, water, and carbon dioxide on nearby exoplanets.
Mehul Malik, PhD, Heriot-Watt University – Encoding information onto photons in new ways that create a pathway towards a future quantum internet
While still in its infancy, quantum communication technology holds the promise of unprecedented levels of information security, positioning itself as the indispensable backbone for the future functioning of human society. Quantum physicist and Professor of Physics, Professor Mehul Malik, is advancing quantum communications at Heriot-Watt University through revolutionary techniques that harness high-dimensional entanglement, a complex quantum physics phenomenon. Professor Malik’s innovations enable the normally fragile entanglement to survive long distances and harsh conditions, laying the foundation for noise-robust and high-capacity quantum networks that securely transmit large amounts of information encoded on individual photons.
Life Sciences
Yiliang Ding, PhD, John Innes Centre – Unveiling the functional roles of RNA structure in living cells as the key to RNA structure-based therapeutics and crop improvement
RNA biologist Dr. Yiliang Ding serves as Group Leader at the John Innes Centre, where she is developing innovative methods for profiling RNA structures in living cells. RNA has long been known as a crucial part of the central dogma of cellular biology, where DNA is transcribed into RNA and then translated into protein. However, less is known about the complex structures into which RNA can be formed and the importance of these structures in regulating diverse biological processes. Dr. Ding’s research is delivering new insights into the functional roles of RNA structures in gene regulation. This pioneering research provides a springboard for the global use of RNA structure-guided molecular designs in therapeutics and crop improvement.
Tanmay Bharat, PhD, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology – Tackling human health by understanding the mechanisms of biofilm and microbiome formation through new cutting-edge electron cryotomography (cryo-ET) techniques
Microorganisms such as bacteria and archaea are commonly found in complex multicellular communities; however, relatively little is understood about how these multicellular communities form. Dr. Tanmay Bharat, structural microbiologist and Programme Leader in the Structural Studies Division at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, has developed and applied cutting-edge cryo-ET techniques to create atomic-level pictures of cell surface molecules on microorganisms, revealing how these molecules mediate the formation of multicellular communities. Dr. Bharat’s work has important biomedical implications, since most pathogenic bacteria infect humans by forming multicellular, antibiotic-resistant, biofilm communities. This work is also vital for the fundamental understanding of the dynamics of cell-to-cell interactions that led to the historical evolution of multicellular life on earth.
About the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists
The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists, established by the Blavatnik Family Foundation in 2007 and independently administered by The New York Academy of Sciences, began by identifying outstanding scientific talent in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In 2014, the Blavatnik National Awards were created to recognise faculty-rank scientists throughout the United States. In 2017, the Awards were further expanded to honour faculty-rank scientists in the UK and Israel. For updates about the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists, please visit blavatnikawards.org or follow us on X and Facebook @BlavatnikAwards.
About the Blavatnik Family Foundation
The Blavatnik Family Foundation provides many of the world’s best researchers, scientists, and future leaders with the support and funding needed to solve humankind’s greatest challenges. Led by Sir Leonard Blavatnik, founder and chairman of Access Industries, the Foundation advances and promotes innovation, discovery, and creativity to benefit the whole of society. Over the past decade, the Foundation has contributed more than US$1 billion to more than 250 organisations. See more at blavatnikfoundation.org.
Notes to Editors
To follow the progress of the Blavatnik Awards, please visit the Awards’ website (blavatnikawards.org) or follow us on Facebook and X (@BlavatnikAwards).
2016 Blavatnik National Laureate and Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University
There are too few opportunities for scientists to actually come together and share the really big ideas. One of the really great things that we get out of the annual Blavatnik Symposium is that you have this community of young scientists that come together in many different fields.
Yale School of Medicine (2007 Faculty Regional Award Winner)
The Blavatnik Awards are very special because they are given at a stage of a scientific career when recognition is most meaningful and has a long-lasting impact. This was certainly the case for me. The award given at the early stage of a scientific career not only recognizes past accomplishments, but also the future promise. This provides a powerful motivation to deliver on that promise.
New York University’s Langone Medical Center (2019 Early-Career Scientist Award Winner)
Receiving the Innovators in Science Award is really such an honor. It’s a really great way to start out my research career and also be recognized for some of the findings I’ve had thus far. In many ways it validates my approach as a scientist.
This website uses cookies. Some of the cookies we use are essential for parts of the website to operate, while others offer you a better browsing experience. You give us your permission to use cookies by clicking on the “I agree” button or by continuing to use our website after receiving this notification. To find out more about cookies on this website, see our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.I Agree
