Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology

Eppendorf and Science/AAAS established this international prize in 2002. It acknowledges the increasing importance of Neurobiology in advancing our understanding of how the brain and nervous system function. It is awarded annually to one young scientist for the most outstanding neurobiological research based on experimental methods of molecular, cellular, systems, or organismic biology conducted by him/her during the past three years.

About this prize

The Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

Prize money: 25,000 USD

Additional benefits:

The prize winner‘s essay is published in Science and on Science Online
The prize is announced and presented at a ceremony in conjunction with the Annual
Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Eppendorf provides full support to attend this event
Besides the grand prize winner the jury may appoint up to three finalists each year

Application deadline: June 15, 2026

Apply now

Eppendorf & Science Prize Winner 2025

Congratulations to Cheng Lyu, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow at the University Stanford, California, USA, on winning the 2025 Eppendorf & Science Prize.

Dr. Lyu won the Prize for his work on rewiring the olfactory neural circuit in fruit flies, which alters the animal’s courtship behavior.
Cheng Lyu’s research uncovered how the fly’s olfactory circuit reduces a seemingly intractable 3D wiring problem into simpler 1D choices. By systematically tracing, quantifying, and perturbing neuron development across many cell types, Cheng and his colleagues revealed that partner selection occurs along constrained trajectories, greatly simplifying the molecular codes for specificity.

Read more

Meet the awardees

Meet the finalists

2025 Finalist Dr. Constanze Depp

Constanze Depp studied Biosciences with a major in Neuroscience at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. She earned her PhD at the University of Göttingen, working in the laboratory of Klaus-Armin Nave at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine. Her research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease.

2025 Finalist Sara Mederos

Sara Mederos obtained her PhD at the Cajal Institute (CSIC, Madrid), where she pioneered new approaches to study astrocyte–neuron communication and demonstrated the role of astrocytes in goal-directed behavior. She was awarded the FENS Young Investigator Prize 2022 for this work.

General prize information

About the prize

The Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology acknowledges the increasing importance of this research in advancing our understanding of how the brain and nervous system function - a quest that seems destined for dramatic expansion in the coming decades....

詳細はこちら