Honoring Innovation + Excellence

For more information about award nominations, email Glori Rosenson.

Nominations are evaluated by Award Selection Committees, comprised of a global group of your peers representing diverse areas of expertise and career stage. Awardees will be announced in January 2025.

  • The ISSCR Outstanding Young Investigator Award recognizes the exceptional achievements of investigators in the early part of their independent careers in stem cell research. The award recipient will be recognized at the Annual Meeting with a personal award, complimentary meeting registration, and a featured presentation during a plenary session.

    Instructions

    Nomination Letter
    Nominations must be sponsored by two or more people. Nomination letters may be submitted individually or as a single, co-signed letter. Nomination letter(s) (up to two pages) should provide the following:

    • Statement of up to 100 words highlighting the most important accomplishment(s) of the nominee.

    • An overview of the nominee’s contributions to the field of stem cell research.

    • A statement of the nominee’s status as an independent investigator*

    • A statement about the nominee as a colleague and community member.

    Additional Requirements
    In addition to the nomination letter(s), the complete nomination package must also include:

    • The nominee’s CV.

    • A listing of five of their most relevant publications and PDF of each.

    Award Criteria

    • Must be independent investigators conducting original research in basic science or clinical development and translation in the field of stem cell research.

    • Must be seven or fewer years out from their first full-time assistant professorship or equivalent position in an academic, industrial or clinical research setting at the time of the nomination deadline.**

    • Nominations that reflect the full diversity of the membership of ISSCR are strongly encouraged.

    • Must be an ISSCR member in good standing.

    • Must be nominated by two (or more) ISSCR members in good standing.

    • Must be available to attend the ISSCR Annual Meeting if they are selected as the award recipient.

    **Assessment of 'equivalent position' is at the discretion of the award selection committee. Comparable titles in the international academic community might include but are not limited to Lecturer, Senior Scientist or Team Leader. Position titles in other research settings such as industry are recognized to be diverse.

  • The ISSCR Momentum Award recognizes the exceptional achievements of mid-career investigators whose innovative research has established a major area of stem cell-related research with a strong trajectory for future success. The award recipient will be recognized at the Annual Meeting with complimentary meeting registration and a featured presentation during a plenary session.

    Instructions

    Nomination Letter
    Nominations must be sponsored by two or more ISSCR members. Nomination letters may be submitted individually or as a single, co-signed letter. Nomination letter(s) (up to two pages) must provide the following:

    • A statement of up to 100 words highlighting the body of work for which the nominee is being nominated.

    • An overview of the contributions of the nominee to the field of stem cell research.

    • A statement about the nominee as a colleague and community member.

    Additional Requirements
    In addition to the nomination letter(s), the complete nomination package must also include:

    • The nominee’s CV.

    • A listing of five of their most relevant publications and PDF of each.

    Criteria

    • Must be independent investigators conducting original research in basic science or clinical development and translation in the field of stem cell research.

    • Nominee(s) will ordinarily be 10-20 years out from the start of their first full -time independent position in an academic, industrial or clinical research setting.

    • Nominations that reflect the full diversity of the membership of ISSCR are strongly encouraged.

    • Must be ISSCR members in good standing.

    • Must be nominated by two (or more) ISSCR members in good standing.

    • Must be available to attend the ISSCR Annual Meeting if selected as the award recipient.

  • The ISSCR Achievement Award recognizes the transformative body of work of investigators that have had a major impact on the field of stem cell research or regenerative medicine, as well as contributions to the community through mentorship, inclusion, and collaboration. The award recipient will be recognized at the Annual Meeting with complimentary meeting registration and a featured presentation during a plenary session.

    Instructions

    Nominations must be sponsored by two or more people. Nomination letters may be submitted individually or as a single, co-signed letter. Nomination letter(s) (up to two pages) should provide the following:

    Nomination Letter:

    • A statement of up to 100 words highlighting the body of work for which the nominee is being nominated.

    • An overview of the contributions of the nominee to the field of stem cell research.

    • A statement about the nominee as a colleague and community member.

    Additional Requirements:

    In addition to the nomination letter(s), the complete nomination package must also include:

    • Nominee’s CV

    • Listing of up to five of the nominee’s most relevant publications with a PDF of each.

    Award Criteria

    • Must be independent investigators conducting original research in basic science or clinical development and translation in the field of stem cell research.

    • Nominations that reflect the full diversity of the membership of ISSCR are strongly encouraged.

    • Must be ISSCR members in good standing.

    • Must be nominated by two (or more) ISSCR members in good standing.

    Must be available to attend the ISSCR Annual Meeting if selected as the award recipient.

2024 ISSCR Award Winners

Jun Wu, PhD

Outstanding Young Investigator Award
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, USA

Recognizes the exceptional achievements of an investigator in the early part of their independent career in stem cell research.

Sergiu P. Paşca, MD

Momentum Award
Stanford University, USA

Recognizes the exceptional achievements of a mid-career investigator whose innovative research has established a major area of stem cell-related research with a strong trajectory for future success.

Fiona M. Watt, DPhil, FRS, FMedSci

Achievement Award
EMBL-Heidelberg, Germany

Recognizes the transformative body of work of an investigator that has had a major impact on the field of stem cell research or regenerative medicine.

The ISSCR 2024 Achievement Award is sponsored by:

Peter W. Andrews, BSc, DPhil, MBA

Public Service Award
Joint Honoree

University of Sheffield, UK

Tenneille E. Ludwig, PhD

Public Service Award
Joint Honoree

WiCell, USA

Recognizes outstanding contributions of public service to the fields of stem cell research and regenerative medicine. The ISSCR Board of Directors selects the Public Service Award honoree.

Past Recipients

For more than two decades, the ISSCR has recognized the outstanding achievements of stem cell researchers around the world and supported the next generation of leading scientists.

  • Takanori Takebe (2023)

    Jennifer E. Phillips-Cremins (2022)

    Madeline Lancaster (2021)

    Allon Klein (2020)

    Barbara Treutlein (2019)

    Shuibing Chen (2018)

    Jayaraj Ragagopal (2017)

    Fernando Camargo (2016)

    Paul Tesar (2015)

    Valentina Greco (2014)

    Marius Wernig (2013)

    Cédric Blanpain (2012)

    Robert Blelloch (2011)

    Joanna Wysocka (2010)

    Konrad Hochedlinger (2009)

  • Cédric Blanpain (2023)

    Joanna Wysocka (2022)

    Valentina Greco (2021)

    Mitinori Saitou (2020)

  • Thomas A. Rando (2023)

    Lorenz Studer (2022)

    Janet Rossant (2021)

    Fred H. Gage (2020)

  • Christine L. Mummery (2023)

    Sean J. Morrison (2022)

    Robin Lovell-Badge (2021)

    Susan L. Solomon (2020)

    Eli and Edythe Broad (2019)

    Megan Munsie (2018)

    George Q. Daley (2017)

    Alan Trounson (2016)

    Paolo Bianco(2014) Co-Winner

    Elena Cattaneo(2014) Co-Winner

    Michele De Luca(2014) Co-Winner

    Hiromitsu Ogawa and Betty Jean Crouch Ogawa (2013)

    Rob and Cheryl McEwen (2012)

    Robert Klein (2011)

The 2024 Annual Meeting Awards

Each year the ISSCR recognizes the significant research and achievements of scientists early in their career. Merit awards are given in recognition of exemplary abstracts; travel awards recognize scientific excellence. Congratulations to the 2024 award winners.

Poster Awardees


Anne Sophie Fischer
Charite-Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Germany
Poster Title: R-SPONDIN-YAP AXIS COORDINATES GLANDULAR REGENERATION IN THE STOMACH CORPUS BUT FUELS INFLAMMATION-DRIVEN METAPLASIA

Kaitlin McCreery
Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Germany
Poster Title: MECHANO-OSMOTIC SIGNALS CONTROL CHROMATIN STATE AND EXIT FROM PLURIPOTENCY

Luís Oliveira
Lund University, Sweden
Poster Title: TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR BLUEPRINTS UNDERLYING DENDRITIC CELL DIVERSITY

Merit Awardees


Mary Anne Achieng, USC Stem Cell, USA

Juan Alvarez, University of Pennsylvania, USA

Auriana Arabpour, UCLA USA

Matias Autio, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), Singapore

Lara Avni, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Bianca Barzaghi, European Institute of Oncology, Italy

Julia Batki, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Germany

Monique Bax, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Australia

Jonathan Bayerl, UCSF, USA

Giada Benedetti, University College London, UK

Sakshi Bhatele, Columbia University, USA

Afrin Bhattacharya, The Hospital for Sick Children, Canada

Swarnabh Bhattacharya, Harvard University, USA

Jacqueline Bliley, Carnegie Mellon University, USA

Jeyoon Bok, University of Michigan, USA

Sveva Bottini, University of Torino, Italy

Carine Bourdais, Institute for Regenerative Medicine and Biotherapy, France

Raul Bressan, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

A. Sophie Brumm, The University of Edinburgh, UK

Alberto Camacho Magallanes, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Canada

Ceren Canse, University of Cambridge, UK

David Castellano, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), USA

Duncan Chadly, Caltech, USA

Lok Man Chan, Imperial College London, UK

Yolanda Chang, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands

Shambhabi Chatterjee, Hannover Medical School, Germany

Chuanxin Chen, Guangzhou National Laboratory, China

Fei Chen, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Germany

Carissa Chen, University of Sydney, Australia

Cristina Colleoni, San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, Italy

Aomeng Cui, Columbia University, USA

Anchel de Jaime-Soguero, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, German

Alison Deyett, IMBA, Austria

Jonathan DiRusso, UCLA, USA

Christopher Esk, IMBA, Austria

Connor Fausto, USC, USA

Ian Fernandes, McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Canada

Daniel Fernandez Perez, Cedars-Sinai, USA

Laura Fischer, Washington University in St. Louis, USA

Anne Sophie Fischer, Charite-Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Germany

Esther Fousert, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands

Carla Frau, Charite-Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Germany

Joshua Frenster, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain

Qianzheng Fu, Tongji University, China

Raquel Fueyo, Stanford University, USA

Yoshiki Furukawa, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Japan

Elisa Gabassi, University of Innsbruck, Austria

Aman George, NIH, USA

Alec Gessner, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany

Stefania Giussani, Fondazione Human Technopole, Italy

Sandra Gomez Lopez, University College London, UK

Tobias Greisle, Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany

Charlotte Grey-Wilson, University of Cambridge, UK

Evelyn Halitzki, Lund University, Sweden

Anupama Hemalatha, Yale School of Medicine, USA

Stepan Jerabek, Columbia University, USA

Ran Jing, Harvard Medical School, USA

Rashmiparvathi Keshara, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Germany

Gal Keshet (Cleitman Blackstien), Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Yung Su Kim, University of Michigan, USA

Shay Kinreich, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Tatsuma Kondo, Nagoya University, Japan

Dasom Kong, Seoul National University, South Korea

Marije Koning, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands

Moyra Lawrence, Kyoto University, Japan

Anne Le Goff, Sup’Biotech, USA

Melanie Leboeuf, Stockholm University, Sweden

Xinyu Li, University of Oxford, UK

Madeleine Linneberg-Agerholm, ReNEW, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine, Denmark

Cecilia Loevkvist, ReNEW, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine, Denmark

Marta Lopez Osias, IRB Barcelona, Spain

Caitlin MacCarthy, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Germany

Kaitlin McCreery, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Germany

William McIntyre, University Health Network, Canada

Julie McInvale, Columbia University Medical Center, USA

Carmen Menacho, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany

Michela Milani, San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, Italy

Michael Milevskiy, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia

Masashi Miyauchi, Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, USA

Sara Nolbrant, UCSF Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, USA

Nkechi Odogwu, Mayo Clinic, USA

Bernardo Oldak, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Luís Oliveira, Lund University, Sweden

Lisa Ott de Bruin, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands

Daniela Paasch, Hannover Medical School, Germany

Ramon Pfaendler, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Yannicke Pijoff, Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute, Inserm, France

Daniel Postrach, German Cancer Research Center, Germany

Maksymilian Prondzynski, Boston Children’s Hospital, USA

Karin Prummel, EMBL Heidelberg, Germany

Xuyu Qian, Boston Children’s Hospital, USA

Henry Quach, University of Toronto, Canada

Clement Quintard, University of British Columbia, Canada

Alessandra Ricca, San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, Italy

Maria Rostovskaya, Babraham Institute, UK

Irene Santisteban Ortiz, Technical University of Munich, Germany

Katharina Sarnow, Boston Children’s Hospital, USA

Nathalie Saurat, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA

Giulia Savorè, University of Turin, Italy

Jack Schnell, USC, USA

Anna Aylin Seedorf, University Medical Center Goettingen, Germany

Luca Seffin, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Italy

Vinidhra Shankar, Maastricht University, Netherlands

Asa Sherman, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Tianyuan Shi, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Yu Jung Shin, University of Washington, USa

Malte Siegmund, University of Hamburg, Germany

Silvia Sighinolfi, San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, Italy

Indranil Singh, IRB Barcelona, Spain

Heein Song, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands

Edoardo Sozzi, Lund University, Sweden

Suzan Stelloo, Radbound University, Netherlands

Maximilian Stoetzel, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Germany

Magdalena Sutcliffe, Medical Research Council (MRC), UK

Mara Tihaya, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands

Enes Ugur, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Germany

Marieke Van Leeuwen, Erasmus Medical Center, Netherlands

Karlien Van Nerum, ReNEW, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine, Netherlands

Sergiy Velychko, Harvard Medical School, USA

Abel Vertesy, Institute of Molecular Biotechnology GmbH, Austria

Clementine Villeneuve, Max Plnack Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Germany

Holly Voges, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Australia

Ryan Walsh, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA

Meiyan Wang, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, USA

Jianfang Wang, Tongji University, China

Jiaxian Wang, Vrije universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands

Shicong Xie, Stanford University, USA

Nan Xu, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA

Xufeng Xue, University of Michigan, USA

Wei Yang, University of Washington, USA

Shanru Yi, Tongji University, China

Leyla Yilmaz, Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, USA

Yanbo Yin, University of Cambridge, UK

Wencheng Zhu, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Qiaoling Zhu, Tongji University, China

Travel Awardees


RECIPIENTS OF 2024 ISSCR ZHONGMEI CHEN YONG AWARDS FOR SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE

Mary Anne Achieng, USC Stem Cell, USA

Sanaz Alizadeh, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, Iran

Matias Autio, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), Singapore

Dunya Aydos, Ankara University, Turkey

Neslihan Basak, Ankara University, Turkey

Jonathan Bayerl, UCSF, USA

Yuting Bernice Wang, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

Afrin Bhattacharya, The Hospital for Sick Children, Canada

Sveva Bottini, University of Torino, Italy

Alberto Camacho Magallanes, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Canada

Chuanxin Chen, Guangzhou National Laboratory, China

Fei Chen, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Germany

Sofia Dede, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Greece

Jonathan DiRusso, UCLA, USA

Connor Fausto, USC, USA

Joshua Frenster, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain

César Daniel Meléndez, Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico

Nikolas Dresch Ferreira, University of São Paulo, Brazil

Marieke Van Leeuwen, Erasmus Medical Center, Netherlands

Sarra El Soussi, Koç University, Turkey

Jayarjun Ethiraj, University of Auckland, Australia

Laura Fischer, Washington University in St. Louis, USA

Esther Fousert, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands

Radmila Franchesca Velarde, Universidad de Los Andes, Santiago, Chile

Raquel Fueyo, Stanford University, USA

Yoshiki Furukawa, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Japan

Mert Gayretli, Koç University, Turkey

Alec Gessner, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany

Sandra Gomez Lopez, University College London, UK

Manisha Goyal, Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (inStem), India

Tobias Greisle, Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany

Pragya Gupta, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, India

Stepan Jerabek, Columbia University, USA

Ran Jing, Harvard Medical School, USA

Gal Keshet (Cleitman Blackstien), Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Elaheh Khodadoust, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, Iran

Tatsuma Kondo, Nagoya University, Japan

Dasom Kong, Seoul National University, South Korea

Pradeep Kumar Sundaravadivelu, Indian Institute of Technology, India

Moyra Lawrence, Kyoto University, Japan

Yinglei Li, Wuhan University, China

Xinyu Li, University of Oxford, UK

Madeleine Linneberg-Agerholm, ReNEW, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine, Denmark

Marta Lopez Osias, IRB Barcelona, Spain

 

RECIPIENTS OF TRAVEL AWARDS SUPPORTED BY THE 2024 ISSCR TRAVEL AWARD FUND

Duncan Chadly, Caltech, USA

Caitlin MacCarthy, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Germany

Olivia Majhi, Banaras Hindu University, India

Anna Maria Pulawska Czub, Centre of New Technologies, University of Warsaw, Poland

Bruna Maria Manzini, Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil

Omar Martinez Alarcon, UNAM, Mexico

Carmen Menacho, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany

Michela Milani, San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, Italy

Masashi Miyauchi, Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, USA

Beatriz Moura, CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, Portugal

Shafiqa Naeem Rajput, ICCBS University of Karachi, Pakistan

Ryan Nathaniel Hoffman, University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), USA

Aylin Nebol, Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Germany

Sara Nolbrant, UCSF Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, USA

Arda Odabas, Koç University, Turkey

Bernardo Oldak, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Jyothi P. Nair, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, India

Xuyu Qian, Boston Children’s Hospital, USA

Henry Quach, University of Toronto, Canada

Alessandra Ricca, San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, Italy

Maria Rostovskaya, Babraham Institute, UK

Giulia Savorè, University of Turin, Italy

Luca Seffin, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Italy

Tianyuan Shi, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Silvia Sighinolfi, San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, Italy

Pavel Simara, St. Anne´s University Hospital Brno, Czech Republic

A. Sophie Brumm, The University of Edinburgh, UK

Edoardo Sozzi, Lund University, Sweden

Suzan Stelloo, Radbound University, Netherlands

Xinyu Thomas Tang, Chinese Society for Cell Biology, China

Hilary Toh, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore

Nevena Tsarevska, Medical University, Sofia, Bulgaria

Sergiy Velychko, Harvard Medical School, USA

Kinga Vörös, Semmelweis University, Hungary

Jianfang Wang, Tongji University, China

Yanhua Xu, Tongji University, China

Shanru Yi, Tongji University, China

Yanbo Yin, University of Cambridge, UK

Wencheng Zhu, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Qiaoling Zhu, Tongji University, China

THE 2024 ISSCR TRAVEL AWARD FUND WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY GENEROUS DONATIONS FROM:

Paola Arlotta, Blake Byers, Byers Capital, Melissa K. Carpenter, Amander T. Clark, Dieter Egli, Deborah French, Juan-Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, Jane S. Lebkowski, Haifan Lin, Peter Marks, Novo Nordisk A/S, Rosalio Mendez-Otero, Lygia da Veiga Pereira, Robert J. Palay, Tactics II Equity LLC, Matthew Porteus, Wolf Reik, Benjamin D. Simons, Lorenz Studer, and Siyuan Wang

RECIPIENTS OF TRAVEL AWARDS SUPPORTED BY TREEFROG THERAPEUTICS

Michael Milevskiy, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia

Holly Voges, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Australia

RECIPIENT OF TRAVEL AWARD SUPPORTED BY CORNING

Qianzheng Fu, Tongji University, China

RECIPIENTS OF TRAVEL AWARDS SUPPORTED BY ACRO BIOSYSTEMS

Anchel de Jaime-Soguero, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, German

Enes Ugur, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Germany

Karlien Van Nerum, ReNEW, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine, Netherlands

RECIPIENTS OF 2024 TRAVEL AWARD IN MEMORY OF CONNIE EAVES

Clement Quintard, University of British Columbia, Canada