NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award
Early-career researchers are often the source of some of the most innovative, disruptive ideas in science. Yet the barriers for these researchers are steep: Opportunities to follow daring ideas are often limited, and the freedom to fail in pursuit of breakthrough discoveries is rare. Providing support at this formative stage is vital to ensure promising scientists can fully embrace their potential. Thus, in partnership with Science/AAAS, we established the NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award in 2021. Each year, we recognize outstanding early-career researchers who have boldly pursued exciting fundamental questions at the intersection of the life and social sciences. Their achievements, captured in inspiring essays that are published in Science, demonstrate how risk-taking and imagination drive scientific discovery.
NOMIS & Science Young Explorers
Jiacheng Miao is a grand prize winner of the 2025/26 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award. He is a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, US.
Postdoctoral fellow
Stanford University
Rachit Dubey is a grand prize winner of the 2025/26 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award. He is assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Assistant professor
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Jasmine Kwasa is the grand prize winner of the 2024 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award. She is a postdoctoral research fellow at Carnegie Mellon Neuroscience Institute in Pittsburgh, US, and 2023–2024 US Fulbright Scholar in Nairobi, Kenya.
Postdoctoral research fellow
Carnegie Mellon University
Jason Griffin is a 2024 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award finalist. He is assistant professor of psychology at the University of Houston, US.
Assistant professor
University of Houston
Tian Christina Zhao is a 2024 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award finalist. She is a research assistant professor at the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, US.
Research assistant professor
University of Washington
About Michael Skinnider Michael Skinnider is the grand prize winner of the 2023 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award. He is assistant professor in the Princeton Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University (US). Michael Skinnider is originally from Victoria, British Columbia (Canada). He earned his […]
Assistant professor
Princeton University
About Isabella Bower Isabella Bower is a 2023 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award finalist. She is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of South Australia. Isabella Bower received her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in architecture from Deakin University and the University of Melbourne (Australia). After completing a PhD in psychology at Deakin University, she was […]
Postdoctoral research fellow
University of South Australia
About George Goshua George Goshua is a 2023 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award finalist. He is assistant professor of medicine (hematology) at the Yale University School of Medicine (New Haven, US). George Goshua received his MD from the University of Kentucky (US), completed his clinical residency and fellowship training in internal medicine and hematology–oncology at Yale […]
Assistant professor of medicine
Yale University
About Bill Thompson Bill Thompson is assistant professor of psychology and cognitive science and director of the Computational Cognitive Science Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley (USA). He is the grand prize winner of the 2022 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award and is leading the project How Reasoning About Other Minds Supports Human Culture: Large-Scale […]
Assistant professor
University of California
University of California, Berkeley
About Célia Lacaux Célia Lacaux is a 2022 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award finalist. She is a postdoc at the Geneva University Neurocenter, Switzerland. Lacaux received her undergraduate degree from Aix-Marseille University (France) and Imperial College London (UK) and her master’s degrees from Ecole Normale Supérieure and University College London. She then completed a PhD in […]
Postdoctoral researcher
Geneva University Neurocenter
About Stephen Kissler Stephen Kissler is a 2022 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award finalist. He is a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Cambridge, US. Kissler received his undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, both in applied mathematics. He is […]
Postdoctoral fellow
Harvard University
About Geoffrey Supran Geoffrey Supran is the 2021 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award finalist. He is a research fellow in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University in Cambridge (US) and director of Climate Accountability Communication at the Climate Science Social Network. Supran received his undergraduate degree from Trinity College, University of Cambridge, […]
Research fellow
Harvard University
About Dean Knox Dean Knox is the grand prize winner of the 2021 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award. He is assistant professor at the Operations, Information and Decisions Department at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Knox received his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a PhD from the Massachusetts […]
Assistant professor
Wharton, University of Pennsylvania
