Research Honors and Awards

Columbia University in the City of New York is proud of the external honors and awards recognizing the pioneering research conducted by our distinguished faculty members. The information provided on this page is an abbreviated snapshot of Columbia's current research community, and cannot purport to be comprehensive. If you have awards information to add to this current listing, please contact the Office of Research Initiatives and Development at [email protected].

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture aims to identify and reward architectural concept that successfully address the needs and aspirations of Islamic societies in the fields of contemporary design, social housing, community development and improvement, restoration, reuse and area conservation, as well as landscape design and improvement of the environment.

The Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects is its highest annual honor recognizing individuals whose work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture, and is considered one of the most prestigious awards in the architecture world.

The AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Architectural Education recognizes outstanding individual contributions in architectural education.

The Albert Lasker Awards Program recognizes the contributions of scientists, physicians, and public servants who have made major advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of human disease.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an honorary society composed of many of the most accomplished scholars and practitioners worldwide, and that recognizes achievement in the natural sciences, sciences, arts, and humanities.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing engineering and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people.

The American Academy of Nursing recognizes nursing's most accomplished leaders in education management, practice, and research.

The American Academy of Political and Social Sciences advances science and public policy by bringing research to bear on social problems.

The American Academy in Rome Prize supports innovative and cross-disciplinary work in the arts and humanities.

The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare was established to encourage and recognize outstanding research, scholarship, and practice in the social work profession.

The Distinguished Scientist Award recognizes and honors outstanding research of particular significance in any of the fields related to oral science.

The Association for Consumer Research recognizes certain members as Fellows for their lifetime for "significant impact on scholarly work in consumer behavior."

The American Law Institute elects individuals who reflect the excellence and diversity of today's legal profession.

The American Philosophical Society promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, support of young scholars, publications, library resources, a museum and community outreach.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation offers grants - such as the Distinguished Achievement Award - that honor scholars that have made significant contributions to the humanities.

The Architectural League’s Emerging Voices Award spotlights individuals and firms with a distinct design ‘voice’ that has the potential to influence the discipline of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. 

The Architectural League Prize is a prestigious juried portfolio competition organized around a yearly theme for young architects and designers ten years or less out of school.

The British Academy Film Awards honor the best British and international contributions to film.

The Beckman Young Investigator Program provides research support to the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences.

The Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, funded by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, celebrates the innovative achievements of young postdoctoral and faculty scientists who work in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut.

The Blue Planet Prize recognizes major contributions of individuals and organizations worldwide in solving global environmental problems.

The Bradley Prize formally recognizes innovative thinkers and practitioners whose achievements strengthen the legacy of the Bradley brothers and their commitment to preserving and defending the institutions of free, representative government and private enterprise.

The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics recognizes physicists - theoretical, mathematical, experimental -  who have made profound contributions to human knowledge. In exceptional cases, a Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics can be awarded at any time, forgoing the nomination process.

The New Horizons in Physics Prize is awarded to promising junior researchers who have already produced important work. Each year, up to three New Horizons in Physics Prizes are awarded.

The Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics rewards significant discoveries across the many branches of mathematics.

The British Academy is a fellowship of around 1,400 leading national and international academics elected for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences.

The Burroughs Wellcome Career Award awards physician-scientists committed to an academic career in order to bridge advanced postdoctoral/fellowship training and the early years of faculty service.

The Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program supports the research and teaching careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences.

The Champalimaud Vision Award recognizes contributions to general vision research and contributions to the alleviation of visual problems, primarily in developing countries.

Recognized as one of the world's preeminent awards for engineering achievement, the Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering honors an engineer whose accomplishment has significantly impacted society by improving the quality of life, providing the ability to live freely and comfortably, and/or permitting the access to information.

The Légion D'honneur is the highest French decoration presented on behalf of the Head of State to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding merit acquired in the service of France.

The Clare Boothe Luce Program recognizes and provides private support for new female faculty members in science, mathematics, and engineering.

The American Accounting Association's Deloitte Foundation Wildman Medal Award recognizes significant contributions to the practice of accounting.

The Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Development Award provides grants to junior physician scientists that facilitate their transition to independent clinical research careers.

The duPont-Columbia Awards honors excellence in broadcast and digital journalism in the public service.

The Emmy Award is an American award that recognizes excellence in the television industry.

The Mies van der Rohe Award aims to promote and understand the significance of quality and reflecting the complexity of architecture's own significance in terms of technological, constructional, social, economic, cultural and aesthetic achievements.

Since 1922, the Faraday Medal is the top medal awarded by the Institution of Engineering and Technology and recognizes those who have made notable scientific or industrial achievements in engineering or rendered conspicuous service to the advancement of science, engineering, and technology

The Federal Bar Council presents an annual medal for “Excellence in Federal Jurisprudence” designated the Learned Hand Medal, in memory of the late distinguished jurist.

The Feldstein Medical Foundation is created to promote and advance previously neglected areas of medical research.

The Fields Medal is awarded every four years by the International Congress of Mathematicians to recognize outstanding mathematical achievement.

The Ford Foundation Fellowship programs seek to increase the diversity of the nation’s university faculties to maximize the educational benefits of diversity.

The Franklin Institute encourages and provides public recognition of excellence in science and technology.

The Fulbright Scholar Program, a program of the United States Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, offers over 500 teaching, research or combination teaching/research awards in over 125 countries.

The Gilbert A. Churchill Award is for lifetime achievement in the academic study of marketing research.

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The International Prize Program of the Gruber Foundation honors individuals in the fields of Cosmology, Genetics, and Neuroscience, whose groundbreaking work provides new models that inspire and enable fundamental shifts in knowledge and culture.

Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.

Howard Hughes Medical Investigator Program provides biomedical researchers with long-term, flexible funding to employ scientists as investigators, rather than awarding them grants for specific research projects.

The Humboldt Research Award is granted in recognition of a researcher whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline.

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Lancaster Prize is given for the best contribution to operations research and the management sciences.

The Institute of Labor Economics awards the biennial lZA Prize for outstanding academic achievement in the field of labor economics.

The Jefferson Science Fellowship Program recognizes American academic science, technology, engineering, and medical communities in the formulation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy and international development programming.

The John Bates Clark Medal is awarded annually by the American Economics Association to that American economist under the age of forty who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge.

The Kaufmann Junior Faculty Fellowships in Entrepreneurial Research recognizes tenured or tenure-track junior faculty members who are beginning to establish a record of scholarship and exhibit the potential to make significant contributions to the body of research in the field of entrepreneurship.

The Kavli Prize recognizes scientists for their seminal advances in three research areas: astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience.

The Keck Foundation Research Program seeks to benefit humanity by supporting medical research and science and engineering projects that are distinctive and novel in their approach, question the prevailing paradigm, or have the potential to break open new territory in their field.

The Kiesler Prize is awarded for extraordinary achievements in architecture and the arts that relate to Frederick Kiesler’s experimental and innovative attitudes.

The MacArthur Fellows Program awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.

The Macy Faculty Scholars Program aims to accelerate needed reforms in the education of health professions in order to accommodate the dramatic changes occurring in medical practice and health care delivery.

The Mallinckrodt Foundation Scholar Award Program aims to support early stage investigators engaged in basic biomedical research who have the potential to significantly advance the understanding, diagnosis, or treatment of disease.

The Max Planck Research Award is annually awarded to two internationally renowned scientists to add momentum to specialist fields that are either not yet established in Germany or that deserve to be expanded.

The Microsoft Faculty Research Fellowship recognizes innovative, promising new faculty members who are exploring breakthrough, high-impact research that has the potential to help solve some of today’s most challenging societal problems.

Founded by MoMA and MoMA PS1, the Young Architects Program is committed to offering emerging architectural talent the opportunity to design and present innovative projects.

The National Academy of Engineering grants membership to engineers who have distinguished themselves in business and academic management, in technical positions, as university faculty, and as leaders in government and private engineering organizations.

The National Academy of Inventors awards the highest professional distinction to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation.

The National Academy of Medicine elects members in recognition of distinguished professional achievement in a field related to medicine and health.

The National Academy of Sciences recognizes members for their distinguished and continuing achievements in original scientific research.