The award is celebrated by a symposium of invited speakers hosted by the Division of Biochemistry and Chemical Biology in the awardee’s honor, a cash award, plaque, and travel expenses to the meeting.

The 2027 winner will receive: 

An award plaque

An honorarium of US$1,000

Registration for 2027 ACS Spring Meeting, which will take place in New Orleans, LA, USA, March 21-25, 2027

Travel and accommodation funding of up to US$1,500 for domestic traveler and up to US$3,000 for international traveler to attend and present at a symposium in their honor at ACS Spring 2027

The Bioconjugate Chemistry Early Career Award was created to recognize an outstanding young researcher who has made a major impact at the interface of synthetic and biological systems. Established by Bioconjugate Chemistry in 2016, the award was managed by the ACS Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry until 2018 and the ACS Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering from 2018-2025. Since 2016, this award has been co-sponsored by Bioconjugate Chemistry and the ACS Division of Biochemistry and Chemical Biology.

Self-nominations are welcome.

For the purpose of this award, “early career researcher” is defined as anyone no more than 10 years from the start of an independent academic, industry, or other research position (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.

Nominees must be conducting research in and have made contributions to the field of bioconjugate chemistry. 

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

Additional information:

The winner will be requested to submit an Article, Review, or Viewpoint manuscript to Bioconjugate Chemistry, which will be subject to peer review.

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 ACS Division of Biological Chemistry to comply with laws and rules around the processing of personal data.

For more information, please visit the nomination form. Questions about this award can be sent via email to managing.editor@bioconj.acs.org.

To make a nomination, please complete the form linked at the top of this page by Monday, July 20, 2026, including a short paragraph of nomination remarks—500 words or fewer—describing the nominee's research accomplishments related to this nomination.

2025: Han Xiao, Rice University

2024: Abhishek Chaterjee, Boston College

2023: Jean-Christophe Leroux, ETH Zurich

2022: Neal K. Devaraj, University of California, San Diego

2021: Chunying Chen, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China

2020: Jason S. Lewis, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

2019: Heather D. Maynard, University of California, Los Angeles