National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

Director's Pioneer Award is a research initiative first announced in 2004 designed to support individual scientists' biomedical research. The focus is specifically on "pioneering" research that is highly innovative and has a potential to produce paradigm shifting results. The awards, made annually from the

common fund, are each worth $500,000 per year, or $2,500,000 for five years.

Recipients

2004

Source
NIH
* Larry Abbott * George Q. Daley * Homme W. Hellinga * Joseph McCune * Steven L. McKnight * Rob Phillips * Stephen R. Quake *

Chad Mirkin Chad Alexander Mirkin (born November 23, 1963) is an American chemist. He is the George B. Rathmann professor of chemistry, professor of medicine, professor of materials science and engineering, professor of biomedical engineering, and profess ...

* Xiaoliang Sunney Xie

2005

Source
NIH
* Vicki L. Chandler * Hollis T. Cline *

Leda Cosmides Leda Cosmides (born May 1957) is an American psychologist, who, together with anthropologist husband John Tooby, pioneered the field of evolutionary psychology. Biography Cosmides was born into a Greek family. Her parents, George Cosmides and N ...

* Titia de Lange *

Karl Deisseroth Karl Alexander Deisseroth (born November 18, 1971) is an American scientist. He is the Chen Din Hwa, D.H. Chen Foundation Professor of Bioengineering and of psychiatry and Behavioural sciences, behavioral sciences at Stanford University. He is ...

* Pehr A.B. Harbury * Erich D. Jarvis
Thomas A. Rando
* Derek J. Smith *

Giulio Tononi Giulio Tononi () is a neuroscientist and psychiatrist who holds the David P. White Chair in Sleep Medicine, as well as a Distinguished Chair in Consciousness Science, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is best known for his Integrated In ...

* Clare M. Waterman-Storer * Nathan Wolfe * Junying Yuan

2006

Source
NIH
* Kwabena A. Boahen * Arup K. Chakraborty *

Lila M. Gierasch Lila Mary Gierasch (born 1948 in Needham, Massachusetts, Needham, Massachusetts) is an United States, American biochemist and biophysicist. At present, she is a distinguished Professor working on "protein folding in the cell ...

* Rebecca W. Heald * Karla Kirkegaard * Thomas J. Kodadek * Cheng Chi Lee * Evgeny A. Nudler * Gary J. Pielak * David A. Relman * Rosalind A Segal * James L. Sherley * Younan Xia

2007

Source
NIH
*

Lisa Feldman Barrett Lisa Feldman Barrett is a Canadian-American psychologist. She is a University Distinguished Professor of psychology at Northeastern University, where she focuses on affective science and co-directs the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Labora ...

Peter Bearman Peter Shawn Bearman (born 1956) is an American sociologist, notable for his contributions to the fields of adolescent health, research design, structural analysis, textual analysis, oral history and social networks. He is the Jonathan R. Cole Pr ...

* Emery N. Brown * Thomas R. Clandinin * James J. Collins * Margaret Gardel * Takao K. Hensch * Marshall S. Horwitz *

Rustem F. Ismagilov Rustem F. Ismagilov is a Russian-American chemist. He is the John W. and Herberta M. Miles Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. Early life and education Ismagilov was born in 1973 in Ufa, Russ ...

* Frances E. Jensen *

Mark J. Schnitzer Mark Schnitzer is a Professor jointly in the Biology and Applied Physics departments at Stanford University and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and is a recipient of a Paul Allen grant. His current research focuses on techniq ...

Gina Turrigiano Gina G. Turrigiano is an American neuroscientist and is the Levitan Chair of Vision Science at Brandeis University. Gina was born in 1963. Professional Work Turrigiano is known for her pioneering work on the mechanisms that allow brain circui ...

2008

Source
NIH
*

James K. Chen James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince Jame ...

, Ph.D.,

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Ricardo Dolmetsch Richard Carl Elciario Dolmetsch (or Ricardo Dolmetsch; born March 7, 1969) is a Colombian-American neuroscientist, educator and biotechnology entrepreneur. Dolmetsch is the president of Tempero Bio, a biotech company seeking to cure substance u ...

, Ph.D., Stanford University * James Eberwine, Ph.D.,

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

* Joshua M. Epstein, Ph.D.,

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global econo ...

* Bruce A. Hay, Ph.D.,

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

Ann Hochschild Ann Hochschild is an American microbiologist who is known for her work researching bacterial protein-protein interactions and the discovery of prion-forming proteins in bacteria. She is the Maude & Lillian Presley Professor of Microbiology and c ...

, Ph.D.,

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

* Charles M. Lieber, Ph.D.,

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

* Barry London, M.D., Ph.D.,

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

Tom Maniatis Tom Maniatis (born May 8, 1943), is an American professor of molecular and cellular biology. He is a professor at Columbia University, and serves as the Scientific Director and CEO of the New York Genome Center. Education Maniatis received B.A ...

, Ph.D., Harvard University * Teri W. Odom, Ph.D.,

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

* Hongkun Park, Ph.D., Harvard University *

Aviv Regev Aviv Regev (Hebrew language, Hebrew: אביב רגב; born 11 July 1971) is a computational biologist and systems biologist and Executive Vice President and Head of Genentech Research and Early Development in Genentech/Roche. She is a core membe ...

, Ph.D.,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

Broad Institute The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (IPA: , pronunciation respelling: ), often referred to as the Broad Institute, is a biomedical and genomic research center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The institu ...

Aravinthan D.T. Samuel ''Aravindhan'' is a 1997 Indian Tamil language, Tamil-language Political thriller, political thriller film written and directed by newcomer T. Nagarajan and produced by T. Siva. The film stars R. Sarathkumar, Sarathkumar as the titular character ...

, Ph.D., Harvard University * Saeed Tavazoie, Ph.D.,

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

* Alice Y. Ting, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology * Alexander van Oudenaarden, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2009

Source
NIH
* Ivor J. Benjamin,

University of Utah School of Medicine The University of Utah School of Medicine is located on the upper campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was founded in 1905 and is currently the only MD-granting medical school in the state of Utah. History The school bega ...

Ajay Chawla Ajay or Ajai may refer to: People * Ajay (given name) * Abe Ajay (1919–1998), American artist * Ajay (actor), Indian actor prominent in Telugu cinema Places * Ajai Wildlife Reserve, northeastern Uganda * Ajay River, a major river in Jharkhand ...

, Stanford University * Chang-Zheng Chen, Stanford University * Hilde Cheroutre, La Jolla Institute for Immunology * Markus W. Covert, Stanford University * Joseph M. DeSimone,

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

/North Carolina State University *

Sylvia M. Evans Sylvia may refer to: People *Sylvia (given name) *Sylvia (singer), American country music and country pop singer and songwriter *Sylvia Robinson, American singer, record producer, and record label executive *Sylvia Vrethammar, Swedish singer cred ...

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

* Joseph R. Fetcho, Cornell University * Timothy E. Holy,

Washington University School of Medicine Washington University School of Medicine (WashU Medicine) is the medical school of Washington University in St. Louis, located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1891, the School of Medicine shares a ca ...

Tannishtha Reya Tannishtha Reya is an Indian-born American cell and developmental biologist working in cancer research at Columbia University in New York. She has received numerous awards, including an National Institutes of Health, NIH Director's Pioneer Award ...

, Duke University * Gene E. Robinson,

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

* Susan M. Rosenberg,

Baylor College of Medicine The Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a private medical school in Houston, Texas, United States. Originally as the Baylor University College of Medicine from 1903 to 1969, the college became independent with the current name and has been se ...

* Leona D. Samson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology * Nirao M. Shah,

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedic ...

* Krishna V. Shenoy, Stanford University * Sarah A. Tishkoff, University of Pennsylvania * Alexander J. Travis, Cornell University State College of Veterinary Medicine * Jin Zhang,

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a Private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Established in 1893 following the construction of the Johns Ho ...

2010

Source
NIH
* Carlos F. Barbas III, Ph.D.,

Scripps Research Scripps Research is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the institute has over 170 laboratories employing 2,100 scientists, tec ...

* Pamela J. Bjorkman, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology * Valentin Dragoi, Ph.D., University of Texas, Health Science Center at Houston * Stephen W. Fesik, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University School of Medicine * Tamas L. Horvath, D.V.M., Ph.D.,

Yale School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the medical school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. It is the sixth-oldest m ...

* J. Keith Joung, M.D., Ph.D.,

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...

/ Harvard Medical School * David Kleinfeld, Ph.D.,

* Haifan Lin, Ph.D., Yale University * Jun O. Liu, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine * Andres Villu Maricq, M.D., Ph.D., University of Utah * Joseph H. Nadeau, Ph.D.,

Institute for Systems Biology Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) is a non-profit research institution located in Seattle, Washington, United States. ISB concentrates on systems biology, the study of relationships and interactions between various parts of biological systems, ...

* Miguel A. L. Nicolelis, M.D., Ph.D. , Duke University * Lalita Ramakrishnan, M.D., Ph.D., University of Washington * Lorna W. Role, Ph.D.,

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

* Michael L. Roukes, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology *

Ram Samudrala Ram Samudrala is a professor of computational biology and bioinformatics at the University at Buffalo, United States. He researches protein folding, structure, function, interaction, design, and evolution. Education and career Samudrala received ...

, Ph.D., University of Washington * Bruce A. Yankner, M.D., Ph.D., Harvard Medical School

2011

Source
NIH
* Utpal Banerjee, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles * Brenda L. Bass, Ph.D., University of Utah *

Jean Bennett Jean Bennett is the F. M. Kirby Professor of Ophthalmology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on gene therapy for retinal diseases. Her laboratory developed the first FDA approved gene the ...

, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania * William M. Clemons, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology * Florian Engert, Ph.D., Harvard University * Andrew P. Feinberg, M.D., M.P.H., Johns Hopkins University * James E.K. Hildreth, M.D., Ph.D., University of California, Davis * Tao Pan, Ph.D., University of Chicago * Sharad Ramanathan, Ph.D., Harvard University * David S. Schneider, Ph.D., Stanford University * Thanos Siapas, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology * Andreas S. Tolias, Ph.D. , Baylor College of Medicine * Mehmet Fatih Yanik, Ph.D. , Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2012

Source
NIH
* Anne Brunet, Ph.D., Stanford University * Edward Marcotte, Ph.D.,

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

* Hidde Ploegh, Ph.D.,

Whitehead Institute Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research is a non-profit research institute located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States that is dedicated to improving human health through basic biomedical research. It was founded as a fiscally indep ...

* Christina Smolke, Ph.D., Stanford University * Yi Tang, Ph.D., University of California * Doris Ying Tsao, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, *

Lihong V. Wang Lihong V. Wang () is the Bren Professor of Medical Engineering and Electrical Engineering at the Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering at California Institute of Technology and was formerly the Gene K. Beare Distinguished Prof ...

, Ph.D.,

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

* Chao-Ting Wu, Ph.D., Harvard University Medical School * Gary Yellen, Ph.D., Harvard University Medical School *

Feng Zhang Feng Zhang (; born October 22, 1981) is a Chinese-born American biochemist. Zhang currently holds the James and Patricia Poitras Professorship in Neuroscience at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and in the Departments of Brain and Co ...

, Ph.D.,

2013

Source
NIH
* Amy Arnsten, Ph.D., Yale University, New Haven, CT * Edward S. Boyden, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA * Vadim N. Gladyshev, Ph.D.,

Brigham and Women's Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH or The Brigham) is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the largest hospital in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Along with Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two ...

and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA * Baljit S. Khakh, Ph.D., University of California Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine, CA * Michael Z. Lin, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford University, Stanford, CA * Jay Shendure, M.D., Ph.D., University of Washington, Seattle, WA * Natalia A. Trayanova, Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD * Fan Wang, Ph.D., Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC * Leor S Weinberger, Ph.D., Gladstone Institutes and University of California, San Francisco, CA * Xiaoliang Sunney Xie, Ph.D., Harvard University, Cambridge, MA * Rafael Yuste, M.D., Ph.D., Columbia University, New York, NY * Mark J Zylka, Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC

2014

Source
NIH
* Jayakrishna Ambati, M.D., University of Kentucky * Chenghua Gu, D.V.M., Ph.D., Harvard medical School * Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D., University of Connecticut * Denise J. Montell, Ph.D., University of California Santa Barbara * Carl D. Novina, M.D., Ph.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute * Amy Palmer, Ph.D., University of Colorado *

Dana Pe'er Dana Pe'er (; born 1971), Chair and Professor in Computational and Systems Biology Program at Sloan Kettering Institute is a researcher in computational systems biology. A Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator since 2021, she was pr ...

, Ph.D., Columbia University * Oliver Rando, M.D., Ph.D. , University of Massachusetts Medical School * Donna L. Spiegelman, Sc.D., Harvard School of Public Health * Sean Wu, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford University

2015

Source
2015 NIH
*

Giovanni Bosco John Melchior Bosco, SDB (; ; 16 August 181531 January 1888), popularly known as Don Bosco or Dom Bosco ( IPA: ), was an Italian Catholic priest, educator and writer. While working in Turin, where the population suffered many of the ill eff ...

, Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine * Jeffery S. Cox, University of California San Francisco * Matthew David Disney, The Scripps Research Institute * Zemer Gitai, Princeton University * Jonathon Howard, Yale University * Craig Montell, University of California Santa Barbara * Coleen T. Murphy, Princeton University *

Gwendalyn J. Randolph Gwendalyn J. Randolph is an American Immunology, immunologist, the Emil R. Unanue Distinguished Professor in the Department of Immunology and Pathology at Washington University School of Medicine. During her postdoctoral work, Randolph characteriz ...

* Steven J. Schiff, The Pennsylvania State University * Hao Wu, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School * Tony Wyss-Coray,

Stanford University School of Medicine The Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California, United States. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Fra ...

and VA Palo Alto * Ryohei Yasuda, Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience * Sheng Zhong, University of California San Diego

2016

Source
NIH
* Kristin Baldwin, The Scripps Research Institute * Bradley Bernstein, Massachusetts General Hospital and Broad Institute * Michael Fischbach, University of California, San Francisco * Uri Hasson, Princeton University * Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies *

Nancy Kanwisher Nancy Gail Kanwisher FBA (born 1958) is the Walter A Rosenblith Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a researcher at the McGovern Institute for B ...

, Massachusetts Institute of Technology * Stephen D. Liberles, Harvard Medical School * Christine Mayr, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center * Joshua D. Rabinowitz, Princeton University *Meng Wang, Baylor College of Medicine * Sing Sing Way, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital * Seok-Hyun "Andy" Yun, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School

2017

Source
NIH
* Hongjie Dai, Stanford University * Amit Etkin, Stanford University * Howard A. Fine, Weill Cornell College of Medicine * Charles M. Lieber, Harvard University * Jeffrey D. Macklis, Harvard University * Luciano A. Marraffini, Rockefeller University * Alex Schier, Harvard University * Ramin Shiekhattar, University of Miami * David A. Sinclair, Harvard Medical School * Justin L. Sonnenburg, Stanford University * Kay M. Tye, MIT *

, Broad Institute, MIT

2018

Source
NIH
* Janelle S. Ayres,

Salk Institute The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is a scientific research institute in the La Jolla community of San Diego, California. The independent, non-profit institute was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine; among th ...

* Daniel A. Colón-Ramos, Yale University School of Medicine * Christina Curtis, Stanford University School of Medicine * Viviana Gradinaru, Caltech * Jonathan Kipnis,

University of Virginia School of Medicine The University of Virginia School of Medicine (UVA SOM or more commonly known as UVA Medicine) is the graduate medical school of the University of Virginia. The school's facilities are on the University of Virginia grounds adjacent to The Lawn, ...

* Hyungbae Kwon, Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience * Michelle Monje, Stanford University * Gabriel D. Victora, Rockefeller University * Amy J. Wagers, Harvard Medical School * Peng Yin, Harvard University

2019

Source
NIH
* Mark Andermann,

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, Massachusetts is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and one of the founding members of Beth Israel Lahey Health. It was formed out of the 1996 merger of Beth Israel Hospital (f ...

, Harvard Medical School * James Eberwine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine * Jennifer H. Elisseeff, Johns Hopkins University * Valentina Greco, Yale University * Christophe Herman,

* Sun Hur,

Boston Children’s Hospital Boston Children's Hospital (formerly known as Children's Hospital Boston until 2013) is the main pediatric training and research hospital of Harvard Medical School, Harvard University. It is a nationally ranked, freestanding acute care Pediatric ...

* Rob Knight, University of California San Diego * Jin Hyung Lee, Stanford University * Marina R. Picciotto, Yale University * Hidde Ploegh, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School * Simon Scheuring,

Weill Cornell Medicine Weill Cornell Medicine (; officially Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University), originally Cornell University Medical College, is the medical school of Cornell University, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in Ne ...

2020

Source
NIH
* Annelise E. Barron, Stanford University, Schools of Medicine and of Engineering * Kathleen Collins, University of California at Berkeley * Christopher D. Harvey, Harvard Medical School * Peter S. Kim, Stanford University * Brian Litt, University of Pennsylvania * Shu-Bing Qian, Cornell University * Susan M. Rosenberg, Baylor College of Medicine * John Schoggins, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center * David Veesler,

University of Washington School of Medicine The University of Washington School of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Washington, a public research university in Seattle, Washington. According to ''U.S. News & World Report''s 2022 Best Graduate School rankings, University ...

* Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, California Institute of Technology and University of Cambridge

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control National Institutes of Health American science and technology awards Medicine awards Awards established in 2004

Recipients

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

See also

References

External links