Star-Friedman Challenge for Promising Scientific Research

Ordinarily, awards will range from $80,000-$150,000 for direct expenses. In truly exceptional circumstances, the committee may consider larger awards. In addition to a monetary award, Star-Friedman Challenge winners receive access to resources at the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning to support the development of both their visual and oral presentations for the public communication of their research at the annual Challenge event. Approximately five awards are made annually.

This competition is open to ladder faculty members in the participating schools (HMS, HSDM, Harvard Chan School, FAS, and SEAS). 

• In HMS and HSDM, this program is open to ladder faculty members (assistant professors, associate professors, and professors) who have primary appointments in the basic and social science departments AND whose laboratories are located on the HMS Quadrangle or at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.
• In the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, primary Harvard Chan School ladder faculty whose research operation is based at the Harvard Chan School are eligible to apply.
• This program welcomes applications for both single- and multi-investigator projects from a broad range of fields and perspectives in the life, physical, and social sciences. To qualify for a collaborative award, a project must list at least two investigators who meet these eligibility criteria. For multi-investigator projects, separate budget requests should be submitted for each lab.
• Only investigators based at the participating schools may request and administer this funding.

Applications must be submitted through the online application portal. To apply, please submit:

1. A one- to two-page proposal (one-inch margins, 11-point font or larger, PDF format) that briefly addresses the following in language accessible to a non-specialist audience:
   • What questions are you trying to answer in this project? What problem are you addressing and why is it important?
   • How will you approach the problem, and how does your approach differ from others? How does your experience enable you to approach the problem in an innovative way?
   • What kind of impact could your project have? How will you measure results?
   • Who will be involved in your project, and what resources will be required?
2. A one-page appendix with graphics and/or references (optional, PDF format).
3. Applicants must also submit a two-page biosketch (PDF format). There is no prescribed format for presenting this information, though many applicants submit an abbreviated NIH or NSF biosketch. In addition, applicants may submit a two-page biosketch for any collaborators involved in the project.
4. A detailed budget (PDF format) including a 15% Assessment* rate. Applicants from all participating schools should use this rate. Please see the FAS and SEAS Policy on Assessments on Current Use Gifts and Sponsored Awards for more information. Awards typically range from $80,000-$150,000 in direct expenses. There is no prescribed format for presenting this information. For multi-investigator projects, separate budget requests should be submitted for each lab. Faculty are encouraged to work closely with their grant/financial administrators to develop a budget. Applicants may request funding to support any expenses related to the cost of performing research, over a time period that makes the most sense for the project. The award period will begin on July 1. While this funding does not expire, the committee will be looking to support projects that can attain demonstrable results within one year. Longer-term projects need to anticipate milestones of success upon a one-year review. 

* The following costs are not charged the 15% Assessment on gifts accounts: 

• Direct student support: object codes 6140, 6401-6449, 6460, 6461, 6470-6473, 6490
• Transfer of Admin fees: object code 8922

Applications will be evaluated for their significance, innovation, potential impact, and the ability of the applicant or team of applicants to successfully carry out the project. In 2026, the review committee particularly encourages proposals that represent a new direction for the PI (a “forty-five degree” turn). Successful applications will clearly address these points in a manner accessible to the entire review committee, which draws its members from a broad range of disciplines. Highly technical proposals written for an audience of specialists are not likely to succeed in this competition.

Committee members represent a range of disciplines. These reviewers were selected for their broad perspective and demonstrated capability for evaluating work in multiple fields of study. Because of the diverse nature of this committee, project descriptions should be written in language accessible to reviewers from a wide variety of fields.

2026 Review Committee:

Michael Desai (Committee Chair), Fisher Professor of Natural History

Paola Arlotta, Golub Family Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology

David Christiani, Elkan Blout Professor of Environmental Genetics

Mina Cikara, Fredric Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society

Melissa Dell, Andrew E. Furer Professor of Economics 

Cora Dvorkin, Professor of Physics

Sean Eddy, Ellmore C. Patterson Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology

Scot Martin, Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering and Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences

Award recipients may be requested to submit a one-year progress report.

This program offers seed funding to eligible faculty for new work in their research programs within the life, physical and social sciences. There are no limitations on the subject areas that may be considered, and programs that take the investigators in directions that are new for them (a “forty-five degree” turn) are encouraged. This program has funded a broad range of projects, from research examining whether all strains of pathogens have the potential to become virulent, to work seeking to fabricate structures that would levitate in the Earth’s atmosphere and might be used for solar geoengineering. This program has also supported the use of new mobile technologies to monitor adolescents at risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors, as well as the search for the physics that seeded the first structures in the Universe. Please view award winners from prior years below.

During this cycle, the application submission window will open on January 15, 2026 and close at 5pm ET on February 27, 2026. Awardees will attend the Challenge event scheduled to take place in Spring 2026. The funding period will begin on July 1, 2026.

Awardees give a presentation about their proposed research at this annual event, which is open to the Harvard community. The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning makes tools available to award recipients for presenting their research to a broad audience. The role of the interdisciplinary audience is to improve the research project through pointed discussion. Awardees from previous years may also provide an update on the research they had funded through this program.

Yes, a PI can submit more than one proposal per competition provided that the applications are scientifically distinct. There is no cap on how often a faculty member can submit.

Yes, a PI can submit a collaborative proposal. To qualify for a collaborative award, a project must list at least two investigators who meet the program’s eligibility criteria. For multi-investigator projects, separate budget requests should be submitted for each lab. Only investigators based at the participating schools may request and administer this funding.

This program does not provide renewal funding; however, the Committee will consider proposals to support new directions or extensions developed out of previously-funded work.

Any expenses related to the cost of performing research may be listed, over whatever time period makes the most sense. These include but are not limited to: personnel costs, equipment, consultants, supplies, etc. PIs may request summer salary support. Any benefits-eligible personnel expenses in the budget must include the appropriate fringe rates for the year. Awards typically range from $80,000-$150,000 in direct expenses. Budget requests must include a 15% Assessment* rate (applicants from all participating schools should use this rate). Please see the FAS and SEAS Policy on Assessments on Current Use Gifts and Sponsored Awards for more information.

For multi-investigator projects, separate budget requests should be submitted for each lab. Faculty are encouraged to work closely with their grant/financial administrators to develop a budget. There is no prescribed format for presenting this information. The committee will be looking to fund projects that can attain demonstrable results within one year. Longer-term projects need to anticipate milestones of success upon a one-year review.

* The following costs are not charged the 15% Assessment on gifts accounts: 

• Direct student support: object codes 6140, 6401-6449, 6460, 6461, 6470-6473, 6490
• Transfer of Admin fees: object code 8922

Yes, budget requests must include a 15% Assessment* rate (applicants from all participating schools should use this rate).

No, applicants are encouraged to submit a budget that reflects the actual needs of the proposed project. Be advised, though, that the Committee may not be able to award all projects at the full amount requested.

Awards will be transferred to a faculty member’s research account, and the faculty member can spend this money to advance his or her proposed research in any manner and time period that makes the most sense. The funding period will begin on July 1, 2026 and these funds do not expire.

No, letters of support should not be included.

Yes. Since these awards are made via a competitive process in support of the PI’s research efforts, the total amount requested and/or awarded should be reported as Current & Pending (Other) Support. The SFC project start date is July 1. While exact project dates are not required in SFC applications and awarded funds do not expire, PIs should estimate the project period and list an appropriate end date on their Current & Pending (Other) Support form. In most cases, these awards support projects for one year.

Please contact Research Development for more information about this program.

A recording of the 2025 Star-Friedman Challenge event is available for viewing. 

The 2025 award winners, listed belowand shown here with Dean of Science Jeff Lichtman, Review Committee Chair Charles Alcock, and members of the Star and Friedman families. 

• Corey Allard, Assistant Professor of Cell Biology: “Cellular basis of organelle theft”
• Josefina del Mármol, Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology: “Sensing water and the evolution of terrestrialisation in invertebrates”
• John Kovac, Professor of Astronomy and Physics: “Shedding Light on the Big Bang with a Novel Microwave Resonator”
• Christopher Kuzawa, Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology: “Validating child-friendly measures of global brain energetics to address new questions in the study of obesity, diabetes and the role of nutrition in healthy brain/cognitive development”
• Jennifer Lewis, Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering; Jianming Yu Professor of Arts and Sciences; and Leonardo Riella, Harold and Ellen Danser Endowed Chair in Transplantation and Associate Professor of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Biofabrication of human kidney tissues for therapeutic use”
• Jessica Whited, Associate Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology; and George Lauder, Henry Bryant Bigelow Professor of Ichthyology: “How to regenerate a limb? Integrating analyses of metabolism and developmental biology”
• Suyang Xu, Assistant Professor of Chemistry; and Ashvin Vishwanath, George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Physics: “Turning the best photovoltaics into new high Tc superconductors; Realize unconventional superconductivity in twisted perovskites”

Read more about their work in The Harvard Gazette.

A recording of the 2024 Star-Friedman Challenge event is available for viewing.

• Fei Chen, Assistant Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, and Core Member, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT: “Neuromodulatory Effects of Stabilized Endogenous Peptides”
• Jeeyun Chung, Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Faculty of Arts & Sciences: “Why do we have fat-handling organelles in neurons?”
• Rita Hamad, Associate Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: “Advancing Health Equity by Increasing Take-up of US Poverty Alleviation Programs”
• Miaki Ishii, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Faculty of Arts & Sciences: “Unlocking the Treasure Trove: Analog Data for Studying the Climate Change and Beyond”
• Jarad Mason, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Faculty of Arts & Sciences; and Korkut Uygun, Associate Professor of Surgery (Bioengineering), Harvard Medical School; Director, Cell, Tissue and Organ Resource Core, Mass General Hospital; Deputy Director of Research, Shriners Hospitals for Children: “Transforming Organ Storage with Porous Water”
• Stephanie Pierce, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Faculty of Arts & Sciences; and Peter Bishop, Postdoctoral Fellow, Stephanie Pierce Lab: “Biodiversity collapse and recovery at the edge of the world: Using East Gondwana's fossil record to understand Earth’s greatest mass extinction”
• Suyang Xu, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts & Sciences; and Joonho Lee, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Faculty of Arts & Sciences: “Bridging Quantum Chemistry and Physics by Chirality”

A recording of the 10th Anniversary Star-Friedman Challenge Presentations is available for viewing.

• Melani Cammett, Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs in the Department of Government and Director, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs: “Toleration: Living Together After Ethnic Conflict”
• Frank Keutsch, Stonington Professor of Engineering and Atmospheric Science and Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology: “Identification and Initial Development of Technology for Quantifying Hydrogen Emissions”
• Richard Liu, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology; and Joonho Lee, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology: “Harnessing the Light-Matter Interaction for Controlling Chemical Reactivity”
• Vinothan Manoharan, Wagner Family Professor of Chemical Engineering and Professor of Physics: “Imaging the products of viral lysis of cyanobacteria”
• Matteo Mitrano, Assistant Professor of Physics: “An ultrafast magnetic switch for energy-efficient electronics”
• Julia Mundy, Assistant Professor of Physics, and Jarad Mason, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology: “New methods to engineer metastable quantum materials”
• Christina Warinner, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Sally Starling Seaver Associate Professor at the Radcliffe Institute: “A novel proteomics approach for tracing the prehistoric origins and spread of viral pathogens”

A recording of the 2022 Star-Friedman Challenge event is available for viewing.

2022 Challenge winners with donors Jamie Star and Josh and Beth Friedman, and FAS Dean of Science Christopher Stubbs. Photographed by Jeannie Ingram.

• Nadja Drabon, Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS, FAS): “Searching for the oldest evidence of life”
• Jarad Mason, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology (CCB, FAS); and Daniel Nocera, Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy (CCB, FAS): “Microporous Liquids: Next-Generation Electrolytes for Catalysis”
• Noel Michele Holbrook, Charles Bullard Professor of Forestry, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (OEB, FAS), and Fulton E. Rockwell, Research Scientist (OEB, FAS): “Physical controls on the exchange of carbon and water between plants and the atmosphere”
• Stratos Idreos, Associate Professor of Computer Science (CS, SEAS): “Reimagining how Computers See: Making AI Accessible and Accurate”
• Kara McKinley, Assistant Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (HSCRB, FAS & HMS): “Movies of menstruation: visualizing regeneration in the uterus”
• Maxim Prigozhin, Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and of Applied Physics (MCB, FAS; AP, SEAS): “Spatiotemporal mapping of opioid signaling in neurons”

A recording of the 2021 Star-Friedman Challenge event is available for viewing.

• Jonathan Abraham, Assistant Professor of Microbiology: “Prospective profiling of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein evolutionary dynamics”
• Andrew Davies, Assistant Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology: “Anthropocene Savannas: The Future of Humans, Wildlife & Livestock”
• Roger Fu, Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences: “Probing seismic hazards and earthquake physics using high-resolution magnetic imaging”
• Sophie Helaine, Assistant Professor of Microbiology: “Exploiting prophages to tackle antibiotic persistence during infection”
• Ya-Chieh Hsu, Alvin and Esta Star Associate Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology; and Jason Buenrostro, Assistant Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology: “Can Mammals Regenerate? Lessons from the Skin”
• Kaighin McColl, Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and of Environmental Science and Engineering: “Dry lightning: pulling the trigger on wildfires in a warming world”
• Julia Mundy, Assistant Professor of Physics: “An interfacial platform for faultless quantum computing”

A recording of the 2020 Star-Friedman Challenge event is available for viewing.

• George Church, Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School: “Engineering in situ sensors as instantaneous COVID-19 diagnostics”
• Francesca Dominici, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population and Data Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Rachel Nethery, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Danielle Braun, Research Scientist, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Antonella Zanobetti, Principal Research Scientist, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and Natesh Pillai, Professor of Statistics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “Air pollution, race, and health outcomes for COVID-19 in the United States: data access, methods, and dissemination”
• Jerry X. Mitrovica, Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “A new method for detecting polar ice sheet instability in a warming world”
• Benton Taylor, Assistant Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “Volcanic CO₂ vents: windows into the future of tropical forests”
• David Williams, Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences Chair, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Michelle Holmes, Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Todd G. Reid, Research Associate in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Research Scientist, MIT Media Lab; Nicholas Carson, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School: “Despair of a pandemic: using big data to understand the effects of COVID-19 on adolescents and their community”
• Suyang Xu, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “Electron super-highways for information processing”
• Xiaowei Zhuang, David B. Arnold, Jr. Professor of Science, Faculty of Arts and Sciences; and William Allen, Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows: “Imaging the cellular and molecular basis of brain aging”

Winners of the 2019 Star-Friedman Challenge for Promising Scientific Research. Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer.

• Benjamin de Bivort, Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; Noel Michele Holbrook, Charles Bullard Professor of Forestry and Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; Samuel Myers, Principal Research Scientist, Planetary Health, Exposure, Epidemiology, and Risk Program, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, & Director, Planetary Health Alliance; and James D. Crall, Rockefeller Foundation Planetary Health Alliance Postdoctoral Fellow in the de Bivort Lab: "Impacts of Elevated CO2 on Bees and Pollination Services via Alterations in Pollen Nutrition"
• Jennifer Hoffman, Professor of Physics; and Boris Kozinsky, Associate Professor of Computational Materials Science: "Search for Superconductivity in Hundreds of Atom"
• David Keith, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics; and Joost Vlassak, Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Materials Engineering: "Building the World’s Smallest Flying Machines"
• Ann Pearson, Murray and Martha Ross Professor of Environmental Sciences & Harvard College Professor: "Testing a New Proxy for Past Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels"

Faculty members stand with Randy Buckner, chairman of the faculty review committee that selects the projects. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer.

• Cora Dvorkin, Assistant Professor of Physics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “Foreground Separation in the Search of Primordial Gravitational Waves”
• Karine Gibbs, Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences; and Colleen Cavanaugh, Edward C. Jeffrey Professor of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “You can’t just go with your gut: Determining the switch to virulence in endogenous members of the gut microbiome”
• Peter Girguis, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences; and Aspen Reese, Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “Collecting and Protecting Microbiomes: Leveraging Natural History Collections to Study Microbial Communities”
• Stein Jacobsen, Professor of Geochemistry, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “Towards Solving the Younger Dryas Mystery”
• Matthew Nock, Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Samuel Gershman, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences; and Jukka-Pekka Onnela, Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: “Using Mobile Passive Monitoring, Real-time Assessment and Dynamic Computational Phenotypes to Understand, Predict and Prevent Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors”

Challenge winners Amy Wagers, Robin Wordsworth, Jesse Snedeker, Elsie Sunderland, and Caroline Buckee. Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer.

• Jesse Snedeker, Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “Language creation: Modeling the rapid emergence of a new language in Nicaragua”
• Elsie Sunderland, Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering in the Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health; and Caroline Buckee, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: “Epidemics in the wind: Can airborne bacteria cause meningitis outbreaks?”
• Amy Wagers, Forst Family Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “Why we age: a potentially common driver of age-related dysfunction across organ systems”
• Robin Wordsworth, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: “Resolving the status of oxygen as a biosignature to allow a search for life on exoplanets”

Doug Melton presented the awards to Edo Berger, Katia Bertoldi, Talia Konkle, Bence Ölveczky, and Edward Glaeser. Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer.

• Edo Berger, Professor of Astronomy, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “A New Era of General Relativity: Joint Studies of Astrophysical Gravitational Wave Sources and their Electromagnetic Radiation”
• Katia Bertoldi, William and Ami Kuan Danoff Professor of Applied Mechanics, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: “Topologically protected excitations in mechanical meta-materials”
• Edward Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “Computer Vision-Automated Surveys for Urban Science and Economic Development”
• Talia Konkle, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “Shape, curvature, and the neural representation of objects”
• Bence Ölveczky, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “Continuous long-term tracking of brain dynamics and behavior”

Douglas Melton presented awards to five Harvard faculty: Joshua Greene, Paola Arlotta, Federico Capasso, David Keith, and accepting for Daniel Schrag was research assistant Lauren Benson Kuntz. Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer.

• Paola Arlotta, Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “Cognition in the dish: creation of next-generation models of neurodevelopment disease using human brain organoids”
• Federico Capasso, Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: “Emissive Energy Harvesting”
• Joshua D. Greene, Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “The Nuts and Bolts of Complex Thought: Neural Mechanisms of Truth: Functional Operation”
• David Keith, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; and Frank Keutsch, Stonington Professor of Engineering and Atmospheric Science, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: “Designing advanced particles to limit the risk of solar geoengineering”
• Daniel P. Schrag, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology and Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, Director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Area Dean for Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: “Towards a Mechanistic Theory for the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and an Explanation for the Hiatus in Global Warming”

• Richard T. Lee, Professor of Stem Cell & Regenerative Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School: "Intrinsic chronometers of nuclear DNA: Searching for a DNA Hourglass”
• Bernardo Lemos, Associate Professor of Environmental Epigenetics, Harvard School of Public Health: "Uncovering epigenetic adaptations to extraordinarily extreme cellular stresses”
• Charles Lieber, Joshua and Beth Friedman University Professor, Faculty of Arts and Sciences: "Syringe Injectable Electronics for Brain Activity Mapping”
• Conor Walsh, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: “Can soft wearable robots assist patients with limited mobility”