ACS Infectious Diseases Young Investigator Award

Three winners are selected annually. Each winner receives a plaque, a monetary award and an invitation to present at an ACS Division of Biochemistry and Chemical Biology symposium in their honor.

For the 2025 award, each winner will receive: 

• An award plaque

• An honorarium of US$1000

• Registration for ACS Fall 2025, August 17–21, Washington, DC

• The opportunity to present a talk on their research at ACS Fall 2025, August 17–21, Washington, DC

• US $500 to cover travel, lodging, and meal expenses to support attending the ACS Fall 2025 Meeting

Winners are expected to submit a manuscript for publication in ACS Infectious Diseases (subject to normal peer review process) and submit it within 6 months of delivering lectureship talk.

The ACS Infectious Diseases Young Investigator Award was established in 2017.

Self-nominations are welcome.

Nominations are open to researchers of any nationality from academic, industry, or national laboratories.

For the purpose of this award, “young investigator” is defined as anyone who started their independent academic, industry, or other research position within the last 10 years. (Independence is defined as after post doc appointments or last educational training). Anyone who has taken an official leave of absence may subtract that time from the limit.

The following individuals are ineligible to be considered:

• Current ACS Publications Editors-in-Chief, Deputy Editors, Executive Editors, Senior Editors, Associate Editors, and Topic Editors

• Any serving selection committee member for this award

Nominations must include the URL of up to 10 of the nominee's most relevant publications and a short paragraph of nomination remarks -- 500 words or fewer -- describing the nominee's research accomplishments related to this nomination. They can be submitted via an online form, which will become available when the nomination period opens up.

(Before making a nomination, you must get the nominee's consent to share information about them as part of the nomination process. This is necessary for the American Chemical Society, ACS Publications, and the ACS Division of Biological Chemistry to comply with laws and rules around the processing of personal data.)

Additional information is also available at the nomination form link.

The selection committee is jointly chosen by the Editor-in-Chief of ACS Infectious Diseases and the Chair of the ACS Division of Biological Chemistry.

2026: Laura Dassama, Stanford University;
Daniel Hudriss, Utrecht University;
Patrick Dolan, National Institutes of Health

2025: Clarissa Melo Czekster, University of St. Andrews;
Dmitry Lyumkis, Salk Institute;
Aran Singanayagam, Imperial College, London

2024: Pamela Chang, Cornell University;
Shobhna Kapoor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay;
Jun Wang, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

2023: Dylan Dodd, Stanford University School of Medicine;
Stavroula Hatzios, Yale University;
Laura-Isobel McCall, University of Oklahoma

2022: Tania Lupoli, New York University;
Laura Sanchez, University of California, Santa Cruz;
John Whitney, McMaster University

2021: Eszter Boros, Stonybrook University;
David Olagnier, Aarhus University;
Sloan Siegrist, University of Massachusetts

2020: Luiz Pedro de Carvalho, The Francis Crick Institute;
Rushika Perera, Colorado State University;
Cesar de la Fuente, University of Pennsylvania

2019: Steve D. Townsend, Vanderbilt University;
Jarrod French, Stonybrook University;
Megan Wright, University of Leeds

2018: Anushree Chatterjee, University of Colorado;
Ting Lu, University of Illinois;
Emily Derbyshire, Duke University

2017: Catherine Leimkuhler Grimes, University of Delaware;
Chao Shan, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston;
William M. Wuest, Emory University

2016: Audrey Odom, Washington University in St. Louis;
Timothy Wencewicz, Washington University in St. Louis;
Marcos Pires, Lehigh University