Spotlight
A Financial Times review of Becoming America: How Science Shaped a Nation at London’s Science Museum highlights how scientific knowledge helped shape the United States. Supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, the exhibition marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence. Through maps, paintings, scientific instruments, and a rare 1776 printing of the Declaration, it brings together the experiences of colonists, Indigenous peoples, and enslaved people. The review examines how surveying enabled territorial expansion and displacement, while highlighting the agricultural and medicinal knowledge that helped communities sustain themselves and resist oppression. It also traces how Benjamin Franklin’s electrical research and the study of North America’s natural history helped establish the young nation’s international standing. The exhibition is free to visit and runs through April 25, 2027.
Technology Networks features Samuel H. Sternberg, a Columbia University scientist and 2026 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists Finalist, whose research is expanding the potential of CRISPR. His work examines naturally occurring systems that use RNA to guide the insertion of large DNA sequences at precise locations. These systems could offer an alternative to conventional CRISPR approaches that cut DNA and rely on the cell’s repair mechanisms. Sternberg discusses the challenges of adapting these systems for reliable use in more complex cells, highlighting how fundamental research into microbial biology can inform new tools for genome engineering and biotechnology.
Natalie Fardian-Melamed, an associate research scientist at Columbia Engineering, has been named the 2026 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists Laureate in Physical Sciences & Engineering for her nanosensor research. She was honored at the Blavatnik Awards Ceremony on October 6 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Her work, begun as a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Jim Schuck’s laboratory, revealed that small amounts of pressure can trigger photon avalanching, a light-producing chain reaction in tiny crystals. The discovery could enable remote detection of minute changes in mechanical force, with potential applications in medicine, batteries, robotics, and quantum technologies. Fardian-Melamed is now applying these findings to develop sensing devices, including highly sensitive robotic skin. Given by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and administered by the New York Academy of Sciences, the Regional Awards recognize outstanding postdoctoral research across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
The sixth Blavatnik US–Israel Scientific Forum, a joint initiative of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS), took place in Jerusalem on October 13–15, 2026. Focusing on Decision Making, the Forum marked its return to Israel. The forum brought together leading researchers from Israel and the United States for interdisciplinary discussions on the mechanisms that shape decision-making at the individual, societal, and institutional levels. Topics included decision-making under uncertainty, trauma and community resilience, the role of psychological factors in the design of markets and economic mechanisms, and the use of scientific evidence to inform public policy and communicate scientific findings to policymakers.
Providing many of the world's best researchers, scientists, and universities with support, and funding to discover breakthroughs that solve humankind's greatest challenges.
The Foundation contributes to renowned institutions that showcase the breadth of arts and culture, including performance, exhibition and education.
The Blavatnik Archive is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to preserving and disseminating materials that contribute to the study of 20th-century Jewish and world history, with a special emphasis on World War I, World War II, and Soviet Russia.
