NANOSMAT PRIZE

2025 NANOSMAT Prize Award WINNER
PROF. CATHERINE J. MURPHY
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,
USA

NANOSMAT honours and recognizes international scientists who have shown, during their professional careers, outstanding achievements in the fields of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.

The NANOSMAT Prize is our major and most senior award that was set up in 2009 and since then it’s become very popular and prestigious amongst high calibre international scientists.

1. NOMINATION PROCEDURE
Following are the different methods for candidature nomination for the NANOSMAT Prize:
Members of the NANOSMAT Scientific Committee can nominate candidates.
Any senior and prominent scientist or researcher, belonging to an internationally recognised and established institution, can nominate any one candidate for the prize (one nomination per person). However, such nominations must be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from the proposer supporting the nominated candidate for the award (together with the candidate’s CV).

Direct applications by candidates:
Candidates may nominate themselves for the NANOSMAT Prize. 

Self-nominated candidates for the NANOSMAT Prize will need to email their updated CV´s covering the mentioned criteria (see below) to nanosmatprize@nanosmat.org

Deadline for nominations for 2026
For the 2026 NANOSMAT Prize – the deadline for nomination submissions is 15 DECEMBER 2025.

Late nominations will not be considered.

2. CRITERIA
Candidates must satisfy the following criteria:

Leadership
The candidate must be an outstanding scientist and a recognised leader in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology with a distinguished track record of original contributions in the NANO related field.

Research funding
It’s essential that the candidate has an excellent track record of attracting financial support from funding institutes or centres to support their work.

Publications
The candidate must have published extensively in international peer reviewed and high impact factor journals (showing good citation index results).

Honors
The candidate’s international scientific visibility/credibility due to his/her significant contributions and professional standing in the field of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology need to be profound and apparent. Evidence of international professional standing would be judged based on factors such as, international invitations, books authored, edited books/journals, other major prizes, international honors (honorary degrees, titles) etc.

Innovation
The candidate should be or have been engaged with innovative and cutting-edge research. Scientists holding patents and involved with spin-out companies set up because of their work would be advantaged for this award.

3. NATURE OF AWARD
The prize will be composed of the following:
Personalised Plaque
Certificate
500 EUR cash 

4. RULES
A candidate can only receive the prize once and not more than this.
The winner needs to attend the NANOSMAT conference to receive the award.
NANOSMAT Prize Lecture would be given by the recipients at the conference.
The selection committee members cannot be considered for the award (unless they no longer sit in the selection committee).
Unsuccessful candidates can be re-considered for the award the following 2 years. Therefore, they will be in the system for a total of three years.

5. SELECTION PROCESS
The NANOSMAT Awards Committee will review the applications (candidates CV and nomination letters) and select the successful candidate.

Past NANOSMAT PRIZE Recipients: