Natalie Fardian-Melamed, an associate research scientist and former postdoctoral fellow at Columbia Engineering, was named a Blavatnik Regional Award for Young Scientists laureate. The Blavatnik Regional Awards honor scientists from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut whose postdoctoral research exemplifies extraordinary scientific excellence. Samuel H. Sternberg, professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, was named a finalist for the Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, which honors America’s most innovative young faculty-rank scientists and engineers.
Two additional former Columbia postdoctoral researchers—Zhihao Cui, who joined University of California, Irvine as an assistant professor, and Itai Linial, who joined New York University as an Einstein Fellow—were named finalists for the Blavatnik Regional Awards.
Natalie Fardian-Melamed was recognized for discovering and engineering ultra-sensitive, light-based nanosensors that remotely detect a broad range of mechanical forces, laying the groundwork for breakthroughs in biomedicine, robotics, and next-generation quantum technologies.
Samuel H. Sternberg was recognized for discovering natural RNA-guided biological systems that catalyze gene insertion, gene silencing, and gene activation, transforming genome engineering, synthetic biology, and
future biotechnology applications. He was also named a finalist for the prize last year.
