To:         School of Medicine Faculty 

From:    Katherine L. Nathanson, MD and Matthew D. Weitzman, PhD

Co-Chairs, PSOM Limited Applications Selection Committee

Re:         2024 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists

 

The University has been invited to submit nominations for the Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, a program that recognizes promising faculty-rank researchers in three disciplinary categories:  Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Engineering, and Chemistry.  

 

The University is permitted to nominate one faculty member for each of the three disciplinary categories.  The Office of the Vice Provost for Research is coordinating the review and candidate selection process for the University.  Details of the internal competition are included below.

Please note that the Blavatnik Awards are more like prizes than awards to support research. The funds go directly to the awardees and not the institution.

 

• Blavatnik guidelines: http://blavatnikawards.org/awards/national-awards/nomination-guidelines/

• FAQs: http://blavatnikawards.org/awards/national-awards/faq/

• National finalists from previous years: http://blavatnikawards.org/honorees/national-finalists/ 

 

Blavatnik Award Details:

• One Blavatnik National Awards Laureate in each disciplinary category will receive $250,000 in unrestricted funds. 

• The award money is given directly to the Laureate; indirect costs are not applied to the award.

 

Eligibility

• Have been born in or after 1982.

• Hold a doctorate degree (PhD, DPhil, MD, DDS, DVM, etc.).

• Currently hold a tenured or tenure-track academic faculty position (or equivalent) at any stage and with any other current funding.

• Currently conducting research as a Principal Investigator in one of the three disciplinary categories: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Engineering, or Chemistry.  

  • For any sponsored research projects, the applicant must be eligible to serve as Principal Investigator for the project, unless otherwise noted in the LSO. Please see Penn’s PI Eligibility requirements to ensure you are eligible.

• The Blavatnik Awards strongly encourages the nomination of women and other underrepresented groups in science and engineering. 

 

Life Sciences 

• Agriculture & Animal Sciences
• Biomedical Engineering & Biotechnology
• Clinical Medicine & Epidemiology
• Computational Biology, Bioinformatics & Systems Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
• Genetics & Genomics
• Immunology 
• Microbiology
• Molecular & Cellular Biology
• Neuroscience

 

Chemistry

• Analytical Chemistry
• Biochemistry & Structural Biology
• Chemical Biology
• Chemical Engineering
• Environmental Chemistry & Biogeochemistry
• Green Chemistry
• Inorganic & Solid-State Chemistry
• Organic Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry
• Polymer Chemistry
• Synthetic Chemistry
• Theoretical Chemistry

 

Physical Sciences & Engineering 

• Applied Mathematics
• Astrophysics & Cosmology
• Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics
• Civil Engineering
• Computer Science
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Electrical Engineering
• Materials Science & Nanotechnology
• Mechanical & Aeronautical Engineering
• Nuclear & Plasma Physics 
• Particle Physics
• Physical Earth Sciences
• Theoretical Physics

 

Blavatnik Evaluation Criteria:

Nominees and their work as independent investigators will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Quality: The extent to which the work is reliable, valid, credible, and scientifically rigorous.

• Impact: The extent to which the work addresses an important problem, advances scientific progress, and is influential in the nominee’s field, related fields, or beyond, and/or has the potential to benefit society.

• Novelty: The extent to which the work challenges existing paradigms, establishes a new field or considerably expands on an existing field, employs original methodologies or concepts, and/or pursues an original question.

• Promise: The nominee has potential for further significant contributions to science, and the research program will generate further impactful and novel discoveries.

 

PSOM Review and Selection Process 

The Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) will oversee the final review and selection of the nominees. (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is also an invited institution and faculty based at the hospital should apply through CHOP and may not apply through both CHOP and PSOM.)

 

Each candidate must submit the following:

1. A coversheet that includes:

• Nominee’s first and last name and date of birth (mm/dd/yyyy)

• Nominees official title, academic rank, department and school

• Disciplinary category (see list above) and project title

• Project title

• Names, academic ranks and institutions for two letter writers familiar with nominee’s scientific contributions who will provide letters of support.

  • Note: Blavatnik advises that both Letters of Support be prepared by individuals external to the nominating institution and that have not previously served in the capacity of immediate advisor to the nominee.

 

2. Rationale for Nomination from your Chair: A 200-word statement that explains why the nominee should be selected as the institutional nominee and should be based on his/her strong record of significant independent scientific contributions, early career success, and promise of sustained or accelerated progress in the future.

 

3. Nominee’s Research Summary: A research summary (1,000-words maximum), written by the nominee, should describe up to five of the nominee’s most significant scientific contributions and research accomplishments from their independent career. The research summary should be accessible to another scientist working in their overarching disciplinary category (e.g. Life Sciences) but not in their specific field of study (e.g. Neuroscience). Key results, their impact on the nominee’s field of study, and the nominee’s specific role in the described work should be included. Information about the nominee’s positions, awards, and service activities should be excluded. One figure illustrating the most significant results is allowed. Citations and figure caption do not count toward the word limit.

 

4. Nominee Statement on Professional Service and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement: A statement (maximum of one page) describing nominee’s outreach activities and/or professional service, with particular focus on activities and service related to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the scientific community. Topics to discuss include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Teaching and Mentoring: Commitment to teaching and mentoring students, especially those of broadly diverse demographics and/or social backgrounds;

• Collaboration and Leadership: Involvement or leadership in committees, task force groups, professional societies, and organizations;

• Service, Engagement, and/or Outreach: A record of community engagement or outreach activities (e.g. volunteer activities, communicating science to the public, etc.).

• Research: Current and/or planned research relevant to underserved populations or inequalities, or issues relevant to DEI, such as race, gender, sexuality, health disparities, human rights, educational access, ability, etc.

 

5. Nominee’s Curriculum Vitae (4-page maximum) which should include the following (see sample: (Label file: LastName_FirstName-CV.pdf) CV Format Example

• Full name, current institution(s), and position title.

• Education and training, including postdoctoral training and/or residency.

• Employment history.

• Honors and awards with years when they were received.

• Select peer-reviewed publications – List only published work or manuscripts in press authored during independent career; do not include manuscripts that are submitted or in preparation or those published during graduate or postdoctoral studies. Conference abstracts and proceedings should only be included if they are the primary way of disseminating new results in the nominee’s field.

• Select patents and patent applications, including patent title, 1-2 sentence synopsis, and year submitted/approved.

• Research grants – List funding for the main ongoing and completed projects on which the nominee is a PI or a co-PI.  

 

Materials must be submitted by email in a single pdf file to Kaitlyn Hagarty at kaitlyn.hagarty@pennmedicine.upenn.edu by 9:00am on Monday, October 16, 2023.  

 

Subject line of email should be Blavatnik_Discipline of Nomination_nominee’s surname_nominee’s first name (e.g., Blavatnik_Life Sciences_Doe_Jane).