Mentoring

Applications are now open for the Nature Awards for Mentoring in Science 2024
WEST AFRICA

Introduction

Celebrating outstanding support and mentorship in science, the Nature Awards for Mentoring in Science recognise those who support early career researchers in their career development. Focused on a different country or region each year, this year’s award focuses on mentors in West Africa (as defined by the UN), and invites former mentees to nominate a mentor that has made a significant contribution to their careers. 

The Nature Awards for Mentoring in Science is made up of two categories:

  1. The award for lifetime achievement in mentoring is open to individuals who were awarded their PhD or Medical Doctorate before 1995.
  2. The award for mid-career achievement is open to individuals who were awarded their PhD or Medical Doctorate in or after 1995.

Each award comes with a cash prize of US$10,000 (which will be shared in case there are joint winners in any category).

Nomination process

  • Nominees may be nominated by colleagues and ex-colleagues or nominate themselves.
  • Nominations for a candidate must include independent testimonials by five researchers (no more or less) mentored by their nominee, not all over the same period.
  • Nominations will only be accepted as one complete package, which must include:
    • This nominator summary form - FORM ONE
    •  A completed nominee form - FORM TWO including an uploaded CV of the nominee
    • Five completed nomination forms, one from the principal nominator and four from supporting nominators.

​Key dates:
Applications open - 1st March 2024
Applications close - 10th May 2024


Any queries can be sent to mentor@nature.com

The 2023 Awards – France

Lifetime award winner : Daniel E. Shulz, Ph.D. Director of Research 1st class CNRS, Laboratory of Sensory-motor integration and Plasticity, Principal Investigator, Head of the Department of Integrative and Computational Neuroscience, Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience.
Mid Career co-winners : 
Marie- Emilie Terret, Ph.D Group leader, Tenured Senior Research Scientist (DR2 INSERM), CIRB - Collège de France
Fabien Lotte, Ph.D Research Director at Inria (DR2), Inria Center at the University of Bordeaux

The 2022 Awards – Singapore

Lifetime achievement award : Lim Chwee Teck - NUS Society (NUSS)
Mid-career achievement awards : Woon Puay Koh National University of Singapore and E Shyong Tai, National University of Singapore.

The 2021 Awards - Brazil

Lifetime achievement award: Carlos F. M. Menck (University of Sao Paulo).
Mid-career achievement award: Alessandra D’Almeida Filardy (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) and Waldiceu Aparecido Verri (State University of Londrina)

The 2020 Awards - Israel 
Lifetime achievement award: Hanah Margalit (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Mid-career achievement award: Neta Erez (Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University) and Tal Pupko (The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, Tel Aviv University).

The 2019 Awards – India
Lifetime achievement award: Roddam Narasimha (Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR); University of Hyderabad)
Mid-career award: Vidita Vaidya  (Tata Institute of fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai)

The 2018 awards –  Southern U.S.
Joint-recipients of the lifetime achievement award: Jorge Alberto López (University of Texas at El Paso) & Isiah Warner (Louisiana State University)                                                             
Joint-recipients of the mid-career achievement award: Kjersti Aagaard (Baylor College of Medicine) & Anita Corbett (Emory University)

Nature coverage

The 2017 awards – Spain

ANNOUNCEMENT

Nature is withdrawing a 2017 mentoring prize awarded to Carlos López-Otín, a molecular biologist at the University of Oviedo in Spain. Following concerns reported to Nature after the announcement of the 2017 Nature Awards for Mentoring in Science, an assessment of papers co-authored by López-Otín has identified image-integrity issues. The withdrawal of the award is a reflection of the judges’ opinion that high-quality mentorship in a laboratory should not lead to such significant issues. It is not a judgement of the overall calibre of López-Otín’s research. 

Joint-recipients of the lifetime achievement award: Carlos Belmonte (founding Director of the Institute of Neuroscience of Alicante) & Margarita Salas (former Director of the CSIC Centre for Molecular Biology Severo Ochoa)
Joint-recipients of the mid-career achievement award: Carlos López-Otín (University of Oviedo) & Lluís Torner (founding Director of the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona)

Nature coverage

The 2016 awards – US West Coast (Washington, Oregon and California)
Lifetime achievement award: Julie Overbaugh (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)
Mid-career award: Susan L. Forsburg (The University of Southern California)
2016 award page
Nature coverage


The 2015 awards – China
Northern China

Lifetime achievement award (joint winners): Xuetao Cao (Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences) & Xingwang Deng (Peking University)
Mid-career award: Yigong Shi (Tsinghua University)
Southern China
Lifetime achievement award: Hongyuan Chen (Institute of Analytical Science and Nanjing University)
Mid-career award: Hongbing Shu (Wuhan University)
2015 award page
Nature coverage

2014 awards – Ireland and Northern Ireland
Lifetime achievement (joint winners): Cliona O'Farrelly (Trinity College Dublin) & Martin Clynes (Dublin City University)
Mid-career award: Cormac Taylor (University College Dublin)
2014 award page
Nature coverage

2013 awards – Italy
Lifetime achievement (joint winners): Giorgio Parisi (University of Rome I, La Sapienza) & Vincenzo Balzani (University of Bologna)
Mid-career award: Michela Matteoli (University of Milan)
2013 award page

2012 awards – Nordic Countries
Lifetime achievement: Staffan Normark (The Royal Swedish Academy of Science)
Mid-career award (joint winners): Jens Nielsen (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden) & Anders Hagfeldt (Uppsala Universitet)
2012 award page
Nature coverage

The 2011 awards – France
Lifetime achievement: Jean Rossier (ESPCI ParisTech, Paris) & Moshe Yaniv (Pasteur Institute, Paris)
Mid-career award: Barbara Demeneix (UMR CNRS Evolution des Régulations Endocriniennes, Paris)
2011 award page
Nature coverage

The 2010 awards – Canada
Lifetime achievement: Chris Wood (McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario)
Mid-career award: John Smol (Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario)
2010 award page
Nature coverage

2009 Awards – Japan
Lifetime achievement: Fumio Oosawa (Aiichi Institute of Technology)
Mid-career award: Hiroaki Kitano (Sony Computer Science Laboratories Inc.)
2009 award page
Nature coverage

2008 Awards – Germany
Lifetime achievement (joint winners): Klaas Bergmann (Technical University of Kaiserslautern) and Heinrich Betz (Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt)
Mid-career award: Peer Bork (European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg)
2008 award page
Nature coverage

2007 Awards – South Africa
Lifetime achievement: Professor Barry Fabian (University of the Witwatersrand)
Mid-career award: Professor Charles de Koning (University of the Witwatersrand)
2007 award page
Nature coverage

2006 Awards – United Kingdom and Australasia

United Kingdom
Lifetime achievement (joint winners): Andrew McMichael (Wetherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford) and Godfrey Hewitt (University of East Anglia)
Mid-career award: Steve Watson (University of Birmingham)
2006 (UK) award page
Nature coverage

Australasia
Lifetime achievement: Professor Tom Healy (University of Melbourne)
Mid-career award: Professor Rachel Webster (University of Melbourne)
2006 (Australasia) award page
Nature coverage

2005 Awards – United Kingdom
Lifetime achievement: Tom Kibble (Imperial College, London)
Mid-career award: Innes Cuthill (University of Bristol)
2005 award page
Nature coverage

Related Articles
Mentoring and networking: how to make it work
Nature's guide for mentors
In search of the super–mentor
Mentoring mismatch
Learning to mentor

Related links

Contact
If you have any queries, please contact mentor@nature.com.