SBIC Awards

SBIC Early Career Award

The Society of Biological Inorganic Chemistry invites nominations for the SBIC Early Career Award. The SBIC Early Career Award will be awarded annually and the two most recent awardees will present award lectures at the next ICBIC. The award will be presented to an early career scientist (no more than 15 years post-Ph.D. at the nomination deadline, who has already accomplished distinguished research in biological inorganic chemistry. Nominations are solicited from the biological inorganic chemistry community. To be eligible for the award, the candidate must hold SBIC membership since the prior ICBIC. The selection will be made by a review panel consisting of the SBIC President, Past President, and five additional senior SBIC members, representative of all areas, both scientific and geographic.

The SBIC Early Career Award is currently open for nominations with a deadline March 31, 2026. Send your nomination to the SBIC Secretary, Kara Bren, [email protected] and cc to the SBIC Office, [email protected].

Career breaks will be recognized, and applications are particularly encouraged from those whose career has spanned a break due to caring responsibilities or personal circumstances e.g. a period of parental/adoption leave, family commitments, illness, or other exceptional circumstances.

Previous winners are:

2025   Joseph A. Cotruvo, Jr., Penn State University
2024    Kyle Lancaster, Cornell University 
2023    Elizabeth New, University of Sidney 
2022    Amie Boal, Penn State University
2021    Tim Storr, Simon Fraser University, Canada
2020    Liviu Mirica, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2019    Abhishek Dey, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, India
2018    Mi Hee Lim, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Repubic of Korea
2017    Peng Chen, University of Peking, China
2016    Christian Hartinger, University of Auckland, New Zealand
2015    Serena DeBeer, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Germany
2014    Akif Tezcan, UC San Diego, USA
2013    Oliver Einsle, University of Freiburg, Germany
2012    Carsten Krebs, Pennsylvania State University, USA
2011    Christopher J. Chang, UC Berkeley, USA
2010    Chuan He, University of Chicago, USA
2009    Frank Neese, University of Bonn, Germany
2008    J. Martin Bollinger, Pennsylvania State University, USA
2007    Yi Lu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Award Details

SBIC Early Career Awardees will receive a cash prize and a commemorative plaque. Supplemental funding by corporate sponsors is allowed. In addition, the two most recent Awardees will be invited to present an "SBIC Early Career Award Lecture" at the following ICBIC. The SBIC Early Career Award is the most competitive and valuable recognition of excellence in our field.

Deadline
The deadline for receipt of nominations is March 31, 2026.  The Awardee will be announced immediately after the selection process has been completed. The official award ceremony will be at the next International Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry.

Nomination Procedures
Letters should be addressed and the following nomination materials submitted electronically in one PDF file to the contact at the bottom of this page.
• 3 Letters of nomination/support (not to exceed 2 A4 pages) describing the accomplishments of the candidate that meet the criterion of "distinguished research in biological inorganic chemistry." Self-nomination is permitted. If submitted, up to two additional letters of support will be considered.
• Curriculum vitae of candidate, including list of publications (year of award of Ph.D. must be included)
• Copies of no more than two publications by candidate as primary author that support the nomination

Submission Details
All materials should be submitted electronically (one PDF file only) by the deadline.

The SBIC Early Career Award is currently open for nominations with a deadline March 31, 2026. Send your nomination to the SBIC Secretary, Kara Bren, [email protected] and cc to the SBIC Office, [email protected]