The Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise

The Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise supports immigrant professionals who have demonstrated exceptional early career achievements.

Nine $50,000 cash awards;

Young immigrant research scientists and individuals in fashion-related professions will be awarded in 2026.

In 2026, the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise are awarded in Biomedical Science, Fashion & Design, and Fashion & Culture.

Selection Process

An open call for applications is announced annually. Three prizewinners are selected in each category through an application process juried by panels of experts in each field.

Biomedical Science

Three prizes of $50,000;
Immigrant research scientists whose work exemplifies outstanding scientific accomplishment and represents significant early-career contribution to their area of research.

Learn more about science prizes

Gerta Hoxhaj and a colleague in the lab examining a sample in a petri dish.

Fashion & Design and Fashion & Culture

Three prizes of $50,000 in Fashion & Design and three prizes of $50,000 in Fashion & Culture;
Immigrant fashion professionals who demonstrate outstanding early achievements in Fashion & Design or Fashion & Culture.

Learn about the arts prizes

Creative Promise Prize Recipients

Elham Azizi receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for her research engaging machine learning, statistics, genomics, and bioengineering to derive principles of cancer initiation, progression, and response to immunotherapies in cancer patients.

Guosong Hong receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for the development of novel neuroengineering tools combining materials science and biology that engage ultrasound, light, and radio-frequency-based interfaces to study the nervous system.

Maayan Levy receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for her interdisciplinary approach to developing metabotherapy, engaging the potential therapeutic applications of metabolites as vehicles and targets to prevent and treat disease, including cancer.

Selva Aparicio receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Visual Arts for her evocative sculptures and installations, which use organic materials and ritualistic imagery to explore death, mourning, memory, and the fleeting nature of time.

Felipe Baeza receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Visual Arts for his studio practice and poetic style that engages multiple mediums and traditions to explore spirituality, otherness, and regeneration.

Jeffrey Meris receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Visual Arts for his work engaging materiality, installation, and performance to explore the power of ecology and embodiment to liberate and heal from individual and historical trauma.

Donna Honarpisheh receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Curatorial Work for her multidisciplinary approach to address the historic and ongoing omissions of global artists and movements in Western art history and institutions.

Aimé Iglesias Lukin receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Curatorial Work for her leadership promoting the art of the Americas, and her focused initiatives to achieve recognition for historically underrepresented migrant and women artists.

Bernardo Mosqueira receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Curatorial Work for his commitment to building institutions, frameworks, and platforms for emerging and radical artists, especially those from the Global South, Latin America, and diasporic communities.