Samuel H. Sternberg, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, was named a finalist for the 2025 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists. The awards recognize scientific advances made by researchers in the United States.
Two postdoctoral researchers, Viraj Pandya and Yunjia Lai, were named finalists for the 2025 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists, which honors outstanding postdoctoral scientists from academic research institutions across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Samuel H. Sternberg was recognized in the category of "life sciences" for "discovering programmable, RNA-guided enzymes from mobile genetic elements and pioneering their use in genome editing, gene regulation, and synthetic biology across diverse organisms."
Yunjia Lai, a postdoctoral research scientist in the department of environmental health sciences, was recognized for pioneering mass spectrometry innovations to map and screen environmental exposures and biological changes that drive neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
Viraj Pandya, a postdoctoral research scientist in the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, was recognized for groundbreaking discoveries on early galaxy evolution, reshaping our understanding of how galaxies formed and challenging longstanding theories of the early universe.
An independent jury of expert scientists selected this year’s 18 National Award finalists from a pool of 310 nominees representing 161 academic and research institutions across 42 U.S. states. The 2025 National Awards Laureates will be announced at an awards ceremony on October 7, at the American Museum of Natural History.
