Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology

The Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology is a neurobiology prize that is awarded annually by Science magazine (published by American Association for the Advancement of Science) and underwritten by Eppendorf AG, laboratory device and supply company. Entrees are reviewed by editors from Science magazine and the top 10% are forwarded to the judging panel. The judging panel is chaired by the Neuroscience Editor of Science and the remaining judges are nominated from the Society for Neuroscience. The award was created in 2002 to promote the work of promising new neurobiologists with cash grants to support their careers. Each applicant must submit a 1000-word essay explaining the focus and motivation for their last three years of work. The winner is awarded $25,000 and the scientist's winning essay is then published in Science (the winning essay and the essays of the other finalists are all published on Science Online).

List (2013–)

Award Winners & Finalists
2023	Grand prize winner	Marissa Scavuzzo	Scavuzzo's work "focuses on gaining a mechanistic understanding into the functional states of enteric glia in health and disease."
2022	Grand prize winner	Ann Kennedy	Kennedy's lab "develops computational methods to characterize the structure of complex behavior and model its control by the brain."
2021	Grand prize winner	Amber L. Alhadeff	Alhadeff "investigates gut-brain signaling and its contributions to feeding and other motivated behaviors."
2020	Grand prize winner	Christopher Zimmerman	Zimmerman studies "the neural processes underlying motivated behaviors."
2019	Grand prize winner	Lauren Orefice Outside-in: Rethinking the etiology of autism spectrum disorders	Orefice studies "the development and function of somatosensory circuits and the ways in which somatosensation is altered in developmental disorders."
	Finalist	András Szőnyi Conducting memory formation	Szőnyi studies "the cellular mechanisms of learning and memory formation in mice using in vivo imaging and optogenetics."
	Finalist	Zvonimir Vrselja Destined for destruction?	Vrselja "focuses on understanding how brain cells react to anoxic injury following circulatory arrest, and how such cells can be structurally and functionally recovered by developing a perfusion technology."
2018	Grand prize winner	Johannes Kohl Circuits for care	Kohl studies ‘the mechanics of brain activity in mice as they care for their young”.
	Finalist	Tomasz Nowakowski Building blocks of the human brain	Nowakowski "seeks to identify the molecular mechanisms underlying cell fate specification and microcircuit formation in the developing cortex."
	Finalist	Talia Lerner The effortless custody of automatism	Lerner researches "how dopamine circuits regulate reward learning and habit formation, and how individual differences in dopamine circuit architecture contribute to the risk for mental disorders."
2017	Grand prize winner	Flavio Donato Assembling the brain from deep within	Donato studies ‘how internally generated network dynamics in the developing cortex support the periodic firing of neurons”.
	Finalist	Viviana Gradinaru Overriding sleep	Gradinaru is developing optogenetics, tissue clearing, and viral vectors to probe circuits underlying locomotion, reward, and sleep.
	Finalist	Graham H. Diering Sleep on it	Diering specializes in the role of sleep in neural development.
2016	Grand Prize Winner	Gilad Evrony One brain, many genomes	Evrony's research focuses on developing technologies for studying the brain and neuropsychiatric diseases.
	Finalist	Anna Beyeler Parsing reward from aversion	Beyeler explores the neural circuit mechanisms underlying rewarding and aversive memories.
	Finalist	Arjun Krishnaswamy Building connections	Krishnaswamy "has been using molecular, electrophysiological, and genetic approaches to learn how developing neurons in the mouse retina choose synaptic targets and establish wiring patterns important for retinal function"
2015	Grand Prize Winner	Shigeki Watanabe Slow or fast? A tale of synaptic vesicle recycling	Watanabe studies "the mechanisms underlying synaptic vesicle cycle in Caenorhabditis elegans neuromuscular junctions and mouse hippocampal neurons."
	Finalist	Julija Krupic Brain crystals	Krupic researches how place cell activity influences animal behavior.
	Finalist	Jeremiah Cohen Dopamine and serotonin signals for reward across time scales	Cohen studies the neural circuits underlying reward, mood, and decision-making.
2014	Grand Prize Winner	Eiman Azim Shortcuts and checkpoints on the road to skilled movement	“Dr. Azim has been exploring the neural basis of skilled movement using molecular, electrophysiological, and behavioral approaches in the mouse to identify and characterize feedback pathways that control goal-directed reaching.”
	Finalist	Allyson Friedman Jump-starting natural resilience reverses stress susceptibility	Dr Friedman conducts "research on the ionic and neural circuit mechanisms of susceptibility and resilience to major depressive disorder to identify novel targets for treatment.”
	Finalist	Ho Ko Functional organization of synaptic connections in the neocortex	Dr Ko studies "the neural basis of motor control and visual information processing, as well as planning collaborative work with engineers to develop novel biomedical engineering technology."
2013	Grand Prize Winner	Michael Yartsev Space Bats: Multidimensional Spatial Representation in the Bat	Dr Yartsev “recorded the activity of single neurons from the hippocampal formation of freely behaving and flying bats to study the underlying neural mechanisms of spatial memory and navigation in the mammalian brain….[H]e is currently studying the neural basis of decision-making."
	Finalist	Daniel Bendor Play it again, brain	Dr Bender "focuses on how neural ensembles encode perceptual and memory-related information.”
	Finalist	Sophie Caron Brains don't play dice–or do they?	Dr Caron "studies how the information gathered through the senses is represented in higher brain centers; in particular, those involved in memory.”

See also

• List of neuroscience awards