The finalists
Ten universities. Ten projects. Ten academics.
Lauriane Chomaz
Dipolar physics: a review of experiments with magnetic quantum gases
Since chromium atoms were first cooled to quantum degeneracy in 2004, experiments with strongly magnetic atoms have opened a distinctive corner of ultracold physics. This review explains what makes the platform unusual, above all the long-range and direction-dependent interactions between magnetic dipoles, and gives a thorough account of what experiments have so far achieved with it.
R. J. Bouwens
Two Remarkably Luminous Galaxy Candidates at z ≈ 10-12 Revealed by JWST
Only one galaxy beyond redshift 10 had been spectroscopically confirmed when this search of early JWST imaging revealed two remarkably luminous candidates, GLASS-z12 and GLASS-z10. Their spectral energy distributions show the abrupt breaks expected at redshifts around 12.4 and 10.4, opening a window on the last major uncharted epoch in the history of the universe.
Cynthia A. de Wit
Outside the Safe Operating Space of the Planetary Boundary for Novel Entities
Humanity now makes and releases synthetic chemicals and other geologically novel substances faster than anyone can assess or monitor them. The study argues that this places the planetary boundary for novel entities outside its safe operating space, singles out plastic pollution as a particular concern, and proposes control variables judged against feasibility, relevance and comprehensiveness.
Lucie Green
The Magnetic Environment of a Stealth Coronal Mass Ejection
Green studies solar activity at UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, focusing on coronal mass ejections and the magnetic conditions that trigger them. With collaborators in Argentina and France, she analysed the magnetic environment of a stealth coronal mass ejection, eruptions with no clear surface signatures, improving understanding of hard-to-forecast space weather events.
Lin Wang
Can the tools of physics illuminate human society? Surveying the field known as social physics, the work brings methods and perspectives from the physical sciences to bear on social phenomena, the product of a review collaboration spanning thirteen countries across Europe and Asia.
D J McLeod
Peering back to within 300 million years of the Big Bang, the study combines early JWST imaging with deep ground-based near-infrared data to measure how the galaxy ultraviolet luminosity function evolved between redshifts 8 and 15. It confirms that cosmic star formation continued a gradual, steady decline out to redshift 15, providing details of 61 high-redshift candidates along the way.
Pascal A. Oesch
How the first supermassive black holes grew is still open, and faint active galaxies in the young Universe are one of the best clues. Searching JWST imaging and slitless spectroscopy from two surveys, the team found twenty broad hydrogen-alpha emitters at redshifts of about four to five, read as accretion onto black holes of ten million to a hundred million solar masses and far more common than extrapolations from bright quasars predict.
Anna Scaife
MIGHTEE polarization early science fields: the deep polarized sky
Scaife leads research in radio astronomy and artificial intelligence at Jodrell Bank, developing machine learning for the Square Kilometre Array era. As part of the international MIGHTEE survey collaboration using South Africa's MeerKAT telescope, she co-authored the deep polarisation study of early science fields, mapping magnetised structure in the faint radio sky.
Chao He
Towards higher-dimensional structured light
Structured light means tailoring a light beam in every property it possesses, from its spatial pattern to its behaviour in time. This perspective reviews the methods, difficulties and openings for creating, detecting and controlling several of those degrees of freedom at once, and offers a roadmap towards higher-dimensional structured light with potential for larger-capacity, more secure information processing.
David J. Armstrong
Armstrong detects and characterises exoplanets at the University of Warwick, combining space-telescope photometry with machine learning and ground-based follow-up. In this international collaboration spanning Oxford, Geneva, MIT and many other institutions, he helped confirm two mini-Neptunes transiting the young, bright K dwarf HD 73583, a benchmark system for studying how planetary atmospheres evolve.
Exclusive to partners
The Subject Awards are open to partner universities.
Partners verify their data, feature their academics, and are eligible for the Subject Awards. Finalists are identified from open data; winners are decided by our editorial team and announced on 15 September 2026.
Explore partnership →The wider slate
Fifteen more candidate partnerships behind the finalists.
Snowmass2021 - Letter of interest cosmology intertwined II: The hubble constant tension