Roger Tsien Award Winners

The Roger Tsien award is given to an early-stage investigator at the level of assistant or associate professor who has made significant contributions to the field of molecular imaging in the area of chemical biology. This includes the creation and/or use of novel chemistries to probe biological systems using noninvasive imaging approaches. The WMIS awards committee selection was based largely on new syntheses of molecular probes, that have been used for a better understanding of the biology of health.

2024 Roger Tsien Award

Michelle James, PhD
Stanford University 

Michelle James was chosen as the Roger Tsien Award winner in recognition of her work creating innovative molecular imaging agents to enhance the diagnosis, treatment, and comprehension of brain diseases, with a particular focus on developing PET radioligands for visualizing neuroinflammation. 

2023 Roger Tsien Award

Michael J. Evans, PhD
University of California, San Francisco

Michael Evans was chosen as the Roger Tsien Award winner in recognition of his innovative chemical biology approaches to imaging and treating a diverse array of diseases that include prostate cancer and depression.

2022 Roger Tsien Award

Brian Zeglis, PhD
Hunter College of the City University of New York

Brian Zeglis was chosen as the Roger Tsien Award winner due to his outstanding contributions to the field of molecular imaging, including the creation and use of novel chemistries to probe biological systems using noninvasive imaging approaches.

2021 Roger Tsien Award

Summer L. Gibbs, PhD
OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, School of Medicine

Summer Gibbs was chosen as the Roger Tsien Award winner due to her outstanding contributions to the field of molecular imaging, including the creation and use of novel chemistries to probe biological systems using noninvasive imaging approaches.

2020 Roger Tsien Award

Thomas Reiner, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Thomas Reiner was chosen as the Roger Tsien Award winner due to his significant contributions to the field of molecular imaging in the area of chemical biology. This includes the creation and/or use of novel chemistries to probe biological systems using noninvasive imaging approaches.

2019 Roger Tsien Award

Michael Z. Lin, MD, PhD
Stanford University

Michael Z. Lin was chosen as the Roger Tsien Award winner due to his work in developing technologies for optical sensing and control of neuronal function, including bright fluorescent proteins for FRET-based sensing, far-red fluorescent protein for in vivo imaging, fluorescent labels of protein age, fluorescent indicators voltage indicators, and chemical and optically controllable proteins.

2018 Roger Tsien Award

Mikhail Shapiro, PhD
California Institute of Technology

Mikhail Shapiro was chosen as the Roger Tsien Award winner due to his advanced contributions to the molecular imaging field specifically in chemical biology, synthetic biology and reporter genes.

2017 Roger Tsien Award

Michael Neeman, PhD
Weizmann Institute of Science

 

Michal Neeman was chosen as the Roger Tsien Award winner due to her significant contributions to the field of molecular imaging in the area of chemical biology. This includes the creation and/or use of novel chemistries to probe biological systems using noninvasive imaging approaches.