NOMIS Distinguished Scientist and Scholar Award
The NOMIS Distinguished Scientist and Scholar Award honors exceptional researchers whose bold questions and broad-ranging approaches transform our understanding of the world. By recognizing scientists and scholars who actively build bridges between the sciences and humanities, the award champions the innovative ideas that lead to groundbreaking discoveries and open entirely new fields of study. Established in 2016, the NOMIS Award provides the essential funding and intellectual freedom these visionaries need to continue pursuing curiosity-driven science.
NOMIS Awardees
Andrew Gonzalez is a 2026 NOMIS Awardee, professor and Liber Ero Chair in Biodiversity Conservation at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, as well as a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is leading the project A Mesoscale Theory of the Biosphere.
Professor and Liber Ero Chair in Biodiversity Conservation
McGill University
About Tobias Kippenberg Tobias Kippenberg is a 2026 NOMIS Awardee and a full professor of physics and electrical engineering in the Institute of Physics and Electrical Engineering at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is leading the project The Quest for Ultralow Dissipation: From Self-Organized Light to Collective Quantum Drums. Kippenberg studied physics and electrical engineering […]
Full professor of physics and electrical engineering
EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne)
About Ulrike Malmendier Ulrike Malmendier is the Cora Jane Flood Professor of Finance at the Haas School of Business, and a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, US. She is leading the project Stress and Economics — Exploring the Alleviating Role of Predictability and Controllability. Malmendier earned an MA in economics in […]
Cora Jane Flood Professor of Finance and professor of economics
University of California, Berkeley
Wolfgang Busch is a 2025 NOMIS Awardee, Hess Chair in Plant Science, professor and director of the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, US. He is leading the project Mapping the Root Perceptome: Decoding the Chemical Universe Roots Can Sense and the Mechanisms Behind It.
Hess Chair in Plant Science, professor and director
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Markus Rex is a 2025 NOMIS Awardee, head of Atmospheric Physics at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), and full professor at the University of Potsdam in Germany. He is leading the project Deepcloud: Tearing Down a Long-Standing Barrier in Climate Research by Pioneering a New AI-Based Model Approach.
Head of Atmospheric Physics and full professor
Alfred Wegener Institute
Sara Seager is a 2025 NOMIS Awardee, professor of physics, professor of planetary science, professor of aeronautics and astronautics, and the Class of 1941 Professor Chair at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, US. She is leading the project From Lab to Cosmos: Rethinking Habitability and the Search for Life Beyond Earth.
Professor of physics, planetary science, and aeronautics and astronautics; Class of 1941 Professor Chair
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Andrea Ablasser is a 2024 NOMIS Awardee and full professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL; Switzerland). She is leading the Exploring Innate Immune (In)activities project.
Full professor
EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne)
Elena Conti is a 2024 NOMIS Awardee and director of the Department of Structural Cell Biology at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB; Munich, Germany). She also serves as honorary professor for the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy at the Ludwig Maximilian University (Munich, Germany). She is leading the project Visualizing the Messenger: Deciphering the Architecture of Neuronal mRNA Particles at the Atomic Level.
Director of the Department of Structural Cell Biology
Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
Whitney Davis is a 2024 NOMIS Awardee and professor of the Graduate School in the History of Art department at the University of California, Berkeley (US), as well as honorary professor of art history at the University of York (UK). He is leading the project Depictured Worlds: The Perceptual Power of Pictures.
Professor of art history
University of California, Berkeley
About David Autor David Autor is a 2023 NOMIS Awardee, Ford Professor of Economics and a Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Cambridge, US), as well as codirector of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Labor Studies Program and the MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative. He is leading […]
Ford Professor of Economics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
About Anne Brunet Anne Brunet is a 2023 NOMIS Awardee, the Michele and Timothy Barakett Professor of Genetics at Stanford Medicine and codirector of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Stanford University (US). She is leading the Organ Synchronization in Aging and Suspended Animation project. Born in France, Brunet obtained […]
Michele and Timothy Barakett Professor of Genetics
Stanford Medicine
About Thomas A. Rando Thomas A. Rando is a 2022 NOMIS Awardee and is the director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). At UCLA, he is a professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine and of […]
Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
About Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz is a 2022 NOMIS Awardee and has been Bren Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) since 2019. She is also professor of stem cell biology and development at the University of Cambridge (UK). She is leading the project Opening the Black Box of […]
Bren Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering
California Institute of Technology
About Catherine Dulac Catherine Dulac is a 2021 NOMIS Awardee and has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 1997, the Higgins Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University since 2001 and the Lee and Ezpeleta Professor of Arts and Sciences at Harvard since 2018. She is leading the project Understanding the […]
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, the Higgins Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and the Lee and Ezpeleta Professor of Arts and Sciences
Harvard University
About Robert Ewers Robert (Rob) Ewers is a 2021 NOMIS Awardee and has been professor of ecology at Imperial College London, UK, since 2017. He is leading the project A Virtual Rainforest for Understanding the Stability, Resilience and Sustainability of Complex Ecosystems. Born in rural New Zealand, Ewers studied ecology and geography for his BSc […]
Professor of ecology
Imperial College London
About Ronald M. Evans Ronald M. Evans is a 2020 NOMIS Distinguished Scientist and has been a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies since 1978, the director of Salk’s Gene Expression Laboratory since 1995 as well as holder of the March of Dimes Chair in Molecular and Developmental Biology since 1998. He is […]
Professor, director of Salk’s Gene Expression Laboratory and holder of the March of Dimes Chair in Molecular and Developmental Biology
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
About Anthony Hyman Anthony (Tony) Hyman is a 2020 NOMIS Awardee and has been a group leader at and a director of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, since 1999. He is leading the project Phase Transitions and Biological Condensates: The Molecular Sociology of Cell Organization. Born in Haifa, Israel, […]
Group leader and a director of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
About Antonio Rangel Antonio Rangel is a 2019 NOMIS awardee and has been Bing Professor of Neuroscience, Behavioral Biology, and Economics since 2013 and head faculty in residence at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech; Pasadena, US) since 2018. Born in Spain, Rangel earned a BS in economics from the Caltech in 1993, an MA […]
Bing Professor of Neuroscience, Behavioral Biology, and Economics, and Head Faculty in Residence
California Institute of Technology
About Adriano Aguzzi Adriano Aguzzi is a 2019 NOMIS awardee and has been full professor of neuropathology and director of the Institute of Neuropathology at the University of Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland) since 1997. Born in Pavia, Italy, Aguzzi earned an MD from the University of Freiburg Medical School (Freiburg, Germany) in 1986. Following postdoctoral studies […]
Professor of neuropathology and director of the Institute of Neuropathology
University of Zurich
About Janet Currie Janet Currie is a 2019 NOMIS Awardee, codirector of the Program on Families and Children at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and professor of economics at Yale University (New Haven, US) since 2025. She is leading the project Harnessing Big Data to Improve Children’s Mental Health Treatment. Born in Canada, Currie […]
Professor of economics
Yale University
About Didier Fassin Didier Fassin is a 2018 NOMIS awardee and director of studies in anthropology at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS; Paris, France), and has been the James D. Wolfensohn Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, US) since 2009. Born in France, Fassin received an MD and MPH […]
James D. Wolfensohn Professor
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
Institute for Advanced Study
About Don W. Cleveland Don W. Cleveland is a 2018 NOMIS Awardee and has been professor and department chair of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego) since 2008. Cleveland grew up in Las Cruces, NM, US. He earned a BS in physics from New Mexico State University, […]
Professor and department chair of Cellular and Molecular Medicine
UC San Diego – School of Medicine
About Victoria Orphan Victoria Orphan is a NOMIS board member and a 2018 NOMIS Awardee. She is the James Irvine Professor of Environmental Science and Geobiology in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech; Pasadena, US). Born in the US, Orphan earned a BA in aquatic biology in […]
Member of the NOMIS Foundation board of directors
California Institute of Technology
NOMIS Foundation
About Svante Pääbo Svante Pääbo is a 2017 NOMIS Awardee and has been director of the Department of Evolutionary Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig, Germany) since 1997. Pääbo was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He earned his PhD from Uppsala University, Sweden, in 1986 and did postdoctoral research at the Department of Biochemistry […]
NOMIS Honorary Council member; director, Department of Evolutionary Genetics
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
About Karl Deisseroth Karl Deisseroth is a 2017 NOMIS Awardee and has been the D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (Stanford, US) since 2012. He led the project Discovering the Causal Principles Underlying Brain-Wide Dynamics. Born in Boston, US, Deisseroth studied biochemical science at Harvard University (Boston) […]
D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Stanford Medicine
About Tony Wyss-Coray Tony Wyss-Coray is a 2017 NOMIS Awardee and has been professor of the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University (Stanford, US) since 2011 and the D. H. Chen Professor II at Stanford since 2018. He led the project COVID-19 and the Brain as well as the Brain Rejuvenation Factors […]
D. H. Chen Professor II
Stanford Medicine
About Manos Tsakiris Manos Tsakiris is the inaugural 2016 NOMIS Awardee. He is professor of psychology in the Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London (London, England). He led the Body and Image in Arts and Sciences (BIAS) project and is currently director of the Centre for the Politics of Feelings. Tsakiris was born […]
Professor of Psychology
Royal Holloway University of London
The Warburg Institute
27 of 27 People
