The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists were established in 2007 through a partnership between the Blavatnik Family Foundation, led by Len Blavatnik, and The New York Academy of Sciences. The program was created to celebrate and support promising young scientists and engineers early in their careers. The inaugural Blavatnik Awards were presented in New York City on November 12, 2007, recognizing outstanding early‑career researchers in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
The Foundation announces a doubling of the prize money for winners and finalists. The following year, the Awards granted three $250,000 prizes in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemistry to faculty scientists.
On June 3, 2013, the Foundation and The New York Academy of Sciences announced the creation of the Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, extending eligibility to faculty‑rank scientists across the United States in Chemistry, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Life Sciences. This marked the transformation from a regional to a national program. In 2014, the prize became one of the largest unrestricted prizes ever created for early‑career scientists in the United States.
In April 2017, the Blavatnik Awards became an international program with new award categories launched in both the United Kingdom and Israel. These programs recognize faculty‑rank scientists early in their independent research careers and are administered in partnership with leading national academies. The first laureates from the UK and Israel were honored in early 2018, marking the Awards’ full establishment as a global platform for scientific excellence.
By the end of 2022, the Blavatnik Awards had awarded over US $13.6 million in prizes, with honorees representing 48 countries across six continents, highlighting the program’s expanding global influence.
By the end of 2026, the Blavatnik Awards are expected to have awarded over $20 million globally, supporting more than 500 scientists and engineers across the U.S., U.K., and Israel. Past recipients’ long-term impact also became more visible in 2026, as more than 50 companies founded by honorees—six of which are publicly traded—continued contributing to fields such as biotechnology, materials science, and environmental innovation