Draft:ASU–Science Prize for Transformational Impact
Annual prize for early-career scientists from AAAS and Arizona State University
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The ASU–Science Prize for Transformational Impact is an annual prize awarded jointly by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Arizona State University (ASU), in partnership with Science, AAAS's flagship peer-reviewed journal. The prize recognizes early-career scientists and engineers whose research uses innovative methods to address pressing societal problems and generate demonstrable impacts on policy and decision-making.
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| ASU–Science Prize for Transformational Impact | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Transformational, use-inspired research by an early-career scientist or engineer that addresses pressing societal problems and informs policy |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Arizona State University (ASU), in partnership with Science |
| Reward | Grand prize: US$30,000; Runner-up: US$10,000 |
| First award | 2026 (inaugural) |
| Website | www |
Background
The prize was established as part of the AAAS + ASU Collaborative, a five-year partnership between the two institutions announced in January 2025. The collaboration was designed to elevate and amplify strategies that advance scientific excellence while making science more responsive to public benefit. ASU President Michael M. Crow and AAAS CEO Sudip Parikh framed the partnership as a model for cross-sector engagement between universities, scientific societies, and public institutions.[1]
The prize was motivated by a recognition that use-inspired, outcome-driven science often receives less institutional recognition than so-called fundamental research. Early-career scientists pursuing solutions to entrenched problems may face obstacles because their work is disciplinarily unorthodox and does not conform to standard methods. The prize is intended to address that gap by explicitly rewarding transformational impact alongside scientific rigor.[2]
Structure and eligibility
Submissions open annually on May 1 and close on August 15. Winners are announced in February at the AAAS Annual Meeting and recognized at an award ceremony. The grand prize winner receives US$30,000, and a runner-up receives US$10,000. The grand prize-winning essay is published in Science in print and online; the runner-up essay is published in Science online only.[3]
Entrants must hold an M.D., Ph.D., M.D./Ph.D., or J.D. and have received their terminal degree within the prior 15 years. The prize is open to a single individual. Current students, postdoctoral researchers, and staff of ASU and AAAS, and their relatives, are not eligible. Past winners of any Science Prize are ineligible for another Science Prize for at least five years after their initial award.
Each entrant submits a 1,000-word essay (main text) describing an important problem being addressed, the innovative research conducted, its public benefit, and implications for policy and decision-making. Up to one figure or table and up to 15 citations may be included.
The prize evaluates research on four dimensions:
- Active consideration of policy and decision-making impacts throughout the research process
- Innovative departures from conventional methods or approaches
- Collaborative and multidisciplinary design driven by desired outcomes
- Attention to the values and interests of different communities, including ethical, economic, political, or legal contexts
Recipients
2026 (inaugural)
The inaugural prize was announced at the 2026 AAAS Annual Meeting, held February 12–14, 2026, in Phoenix, Arizona.
| Role | Recipient | Affiliation | Research |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Prize | Meha Jain | Associate Professor, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan | Used satellite imagery and machine learning to reveal how smallholder farms across the Global South adapt to climate stress and the hidden environmental costs of those adaptations, particularly groundwater depletion. Her prize-winning essay, "Satellite data can help transform food systems," was published in Science on February 6, 2026.[4] Jain received her B.A. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University and her Ph.D. in ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology from Columbia University; she completed postdoctoral research at Stanford University before joining Michigan in 2016.[5] |
| Runner-up | Mayank Kejriwal | Research Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California (USC Information Sciences Institute) | Developed Domain-specific Insight Graphs (DIG), an AI-powered search system that transforms fragmented web data into actionable investigative intelligence for disrupting sex trafficking. DIG compresses investigative processes typically requiring months into days or hours, and has been used by more than 200 law enforcement agencies.[6] Kejriwal received his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin; he joined USC's Information Sciences Institute in 2016.[7] |
Context and significance
The inaugural prize drew particular attention for the breadth of its two honorees' disciplines — environmental informatics and artificial intelligence — signaling the prize's intention to recognize transformational impact across all fields of science, not a single domain. Both Jain and Kejriwal had previously received recognition in other contexts related to their public engagement: Kejriwal had earlier been named a finalist for the AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science in 2021 (the first USC faculty member so named),[8] while Jain's work had been covered by outlets including the New York Times and The Times of India.