The Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholar Awards

The Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholars Fellowship Award submission period is now CLOSED.  The new enrollment period will run from July 2025 to November 1, 2025 .

The Award will support individual postdoctoral scientists of exceptional creativity in the field of neurosciences.

These transitional awards are to enable a postdoctoral researcher to advance to become a full-time faculty member at the Assistant Professor level or higher and to promote the development of a laboratory program that will lead to independent funding. The medical school, research institute, or academic hospital appointing the scholar will be awarded $200,000 annually for two years to cover salary, lab costs, and related expenses.  Under certain circumstances, the awardee may transfer funding to support their beginning faculty position.  Indirect costs of up to 15% of direct costs, may be included in the $200,000.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS:

  • Must have an MD, PhD, or both
  • Must hold a post-doctoral research position at a United States medical school, research institute, or academic institution.
  • Minimum of 3 years and no more than 6 years of a post-doctoral fellowship by July 1, 2026
  • Research focused in the field of Neuroscience
  • Must be nominated by the dean of the medical school or equivalent institutional senior leader.
  • Must include a nomination letter
  • Commitment of a minimum of 75% effort
  • 3 letters of recommendation
  • Budgets submitted in NIH G300 format

Scholars will be chosen on the basis of the success in their prior post-doctoral work and other research as well as in the importance and creativity of their proposed future research.

The Foundation will select recipients for awards using an objective and nondiscriminatory selection process based upon criteria that include each applicant’s research achievements, academic records, scientific proposal and submitted letters of recommendation.

The Foundation expects to make five or more awards in 2026.

HOW TO APPLY:

Please click here to fill out the Warren Alpert Foundation Distinguished Scholar Fellowship application according to the listed requirements.  You must submit all requirements electronically no later than November 1, 2025.

Note:  All inquiries regarding this award must be submitted by either the Dean, Chief Academic Research Officer, or the Grant’s Administration office.  Awards are to be announced in March 2026.

Congratulations to the 2024 Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholar Awardees

WADS 2024
Eric M. Mulhall, PhD
The Scripps Research Institute
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WADS 2024
Gerard J. Broussard, PhD
Princeton University
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WADS 2024
Jonathan Green, PhD
Harvard Medical School
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WADS 2024
Yu Guo, PhD
University of Wisconsin - Madison
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WADS 2024
Marianna Zazhytska, PhD
Columbia University in New York City
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WADS 2024
Paulina D. Ramirez Garcia, PhD
New York University
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2023 Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholars

WADS 2023
Qiancheng Zhao, PhD
Yale University
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WADS 2023
Lin Yuan, PhD
University of California, San Francisco
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WADS 2023
Luis Hernandez-Nunez, PhD
Harvard University
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WADS 2023
Willem Laursen, BA, MPhil, PhD
Brandeis University
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WADS 2023
Xiaodan Qin, PhD
Boston University
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WADS 2023
Philippe Morquette, PhD
Boston Children's Hospital
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2022 Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholars

Mayur Patil - WADS 2022
Mayur Patil, PhD
University of South Florida
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Alison Affinati - WADS 2022
Alison Affinati, MD, PhD
University of Michigan
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Katherine Prater - WADS 2022
Katherine E. Prater, PhD
University of Washington
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Erin Duffy Lacy - WADS 2022
Erin Duffy Lacy, PhD
Harvard Medical School
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Galina Popova - WADS 2022
Galina Popova, PhD
University of California, San Francisco
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2021 Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholars

Dheeraj Roy, Ph.D.
Broad Institute, Inc.
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Sara Prescott, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School
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Jiaxing Li, Ph.D.
Oregon Health & Science University
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Qiliang He, Ph.D.
Georgia Tech Research Corporation
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Ryoma Hattori, Ph.D.
University of California, San Diego
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Oliver Harschnitz, MD, Ph.D.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
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Hyunglok Chung, Ph.D.
Baylor College of Medicine
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2020 Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholars

Ni Feng
Yale School of Medicine
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JiaBei Lin
University of Pennsylvania - Perelman School of Medicine
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Tatsuo Okubo, PhD
Harvard Medical School
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Maria De Los Angeles Serrano
University of Utah Medical School
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Jason Vevea
University of Wisconsin - Madison School of Medicine & Public Health
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2019 Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholars

Sinisa Hrvatin, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School
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Nhat T. Le, PhD
Boston University School of Medicine
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Emilie Reas, PhD
University of California San Diego- School of Medicine
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E. Javier López Soto, PhD
Brown University
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Yvette Wong, PhD
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
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How to Apply

Must be nominated by the dean of the medical school or equivalent institutional senior leader.  Only one candidate per institution can submit an application.

Please click here to fill out the Warren Alpert Foundation Distinguished Scholar Fellowship application according to the listed requirements.  You must submit all requirements electronically no later than November 1, 2024.

Note:  All inquiries and applications must be submitted by either the Dean, Chief Academic Research Officer, or the Grant’s Administration office.  Awards are to be announced in March 2025.

 

Our Review Board

H. Robert Horvitz, PhD
Lennart Mucke, MD
Rachel Wilson, PhD
Karen Furie, MD
Joseph B. Martin, MD, PhD
Fred J. Schiffman, MD
Robert H. Brown, Jr.- D.Phil., M.D.
Barbara McNeil, MD, PhD
Wendy Chung, MD