Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise

The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise support emerging to mid-career immigrant professionals who have demonstrated exceptional achievements early in their careers. The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise are awarded annually in biomedical science, and in a rotating category in the arts and humanities.

  • Applications for biomedical science and music will open in 2022
  • Three winners in biomedical science and three in the arts and humanities awarded each year
  • $50,000 cash award and a commemorative certificate

Selection Process

An open call for applications is announced annually; eligible candidates are encouraged to apply. Three winners are selected in each category through an application process juried by panels of experts in each field.

In 2023 the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise will be awarded in biomedical science and in music. For questions about the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise, contact creativepromise@vilcek.org.

 

2022 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

2022 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Markita del Carpio Landry

Born in Canada
Markita del Carpio Landry receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for the development of probes to visualize neurochemical communication in the brain, and for breakthroughs in gene-editing technologies with applications for agriculture and the development of biologic drugs.
Markita Landry standing in front of a whiteboard with scientific equations.
2022 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Hani Goodarzi

Born in Iran
Hani Goodarzi receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for using modeling and computational methods to uncover novel molecular players and pathways and therapeutic targets in cancer metastasis and for developing sophisticated molecular tools for the early detection and monitoring of cancer.
Hani Goodarzi, arms crossed, standing in front of a whiteboard with scientific equations.
2022 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Harris Wang

Born in China
Harris Wang receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for the development and application of Mutiplex Automated Genome Engineering (MAGE), a platform to track, program, and engineer entire microbial communities and ecosystems for a range of diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
Harris Wang standing in a lab in front of scientific equipment.

2022 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Dance

2022 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Dance

Tatiana Desardouin

Born in Switzerland
Tatiana Desardouin receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Dance for her presentation of hip-hop and house dance that brings the vernacular tradition of these genres in the Black diaspora to her performances, choreography, and artistic direction.
Portrait of Tatiana Desardouin looking off camera.
2022 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Dance

Tamisha Guy

Born in Trinidad and Tobago
Tamisha Guy receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Dance for her evocative and intuitive performance style that blends elements of contemporary, modern, and narrative dance traditions, and for her commitment to furthering her own practice through instruction, collaboration, and mentorship.
Portrait of Tamisha Guy
2022 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Dance

Leonardo Sandoval

Born in Brazil
Leonardo Sandoval receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Dance for his dynamic choreography that expands the boundaries of tap as a genre and his unique practice that engages elements of Afro-Brazilian dance traditions including samba, forró, maracatu, and passinho.

2021 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise

Mohamed Abou Donia

Mohamed Abou Donia receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for demonstrating the potential of the human microbiome as a source of novel drugs and uncovering the basis of microbiome-driven drug metabolism.

Ibrahim Cissé

Ibrahim Cissé receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for using super-resolution biological imaging to directly visualize the dynamic nature of gene expression in living cells.

Silvi Rouskin

Silvi Rouskin receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for developing methods to unravel the shapes of RNA molecules inside cells and aiding the potential development of RNA-based therapeutics.

Juan Pablo González

Juan Pablo González receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Filmmaking for the artistic rigor and deep emotional engagement that he brings to his immersive and intimate explorations of his hometown in rural Mexico.

Miko Revereza

Miko Revereza receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Filmmaking for the ingenuity and urgency with which he bridges the personal and the political, in works that challenge us to rethink aspects of both documentary filmmaking and the immigrant experience.

Nanfu Wang

Nanfu Wang receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Filmmaking for the impact and courage of her riveting documentaries, which are lucid and unflinching in confronting the consequences of systemic oppression and corruption in China.