This year, the Nature Awards for Inspiring Women in Science recognized Taghried Abdelmagid (left) in the Science Outreach category and Alexandra Paterson in the Science Achievement category.Credit: Courtesy of Taghried Isam Abdel-Magid (left); Brad Nally, UK College of Engineering/University of Kentucky (right)
Every year, we remind the research community that women’s contributions to science need to be better recognized and rewarded. The importance of this was underlined only last month, when 2026 became another year in which no women were awarded a Nobel prize in the sciences or economics. The Nature Awards for Inspiring Women in Science, a partnership with the Estée Lauder Companies, are intended to help bend the curve of recognition. Given the awards’ focus on women in the early stages of their careers, they are also intended to create a legacy that will benefit others for many years to come.
Nature’s Inspiring Women in Science Awards
Alexandra Paterson, the winner of this year’s Scientific Achievement award, is a materials physicist at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, and originally from the United Kingdom. She has been recognized for, among other things, groundbreaking work in developing semiconductors from flexible polymer-based materials. These semiconductors, known as plastic mixed conductors, have potential applications in technologies ranging from cardiovascular sensors to low-energy computing.
Unlike most conventional semiconductors, plastic mixed conductors are made from mechanically flexible materials and can be manufactured using low-cost printing. Researchers have struggled with the stability of these conductors, which often do not last long or perform reliably. However, last year, Paterson and her colleagues showed that stability could be improved by using a new materials-engineering technique (V. N. Le et al. Nature Electron. 8, 116–126; 2025).
Celebrate women in research and the networks that sustain them
Our second winner, Taghried Abdelmagid, is at the University of Bath, UK, where she studies sustainability in construction materials. Originally from Sudan, her award, which is in the Science Outreach category, recognizes her part in a female volunteer-led initiative called Share the Knowledge–Sudan (StK). This provides training and mentoring to people — most of them women — in Sudan and in the Sudanese diaspora, so that they can embark on or continue to pursue research careers.
Sudan is experiencing what is often described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Since armed conflict broke out in 2023, some 14 million people have been displaced, either within the country or to neighbouring countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Uganda. The United Nations estimated in August that hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives.
Many of Sudan’s universities have also been destroyed. Abdelmagid and her colleagues established StK in an effort to ensure that girls and women — whose education is often disproportionately affected by conflict — can continue to access scientific knowledge, along with expertise, training and mentorship. StK provides a range of online services, such as talks from scientists, which can attract up to 1,500 attendees, and access to a free digital library. For those pursuing or planning research careers, there is coaching and mentoring, support with developing research proposals and help with interview preparation.
Collaborate and celebrate
Many research awards, not least the Nobel prizes, are designed to recognize individual achievement. Doing so is important, to ensure that appropriate credit is apportioned for discoveries and inventions.
Women need platforms to celebrate excellence in research and technology
But scientific awards should also seek to recognize and celebrate shared endeavours, including collaborations that cross borders and disciplines. Paterson’s work, for example, requires knowledge of polymer chemistry, electronics and biotechnology, and her team is involved in collaborations with institutions spread across three continents.
Many of those shortlisted for this week’s Nature Awards have gone above and beyond to foster collaboration and teamwork, and are using their talents, skills and networks to make science accessible to those who would otherwise struggle to study or secure careers in science.
Paterson was raised in the town of Oldham in the north of England, a region affected by some of the country’s highest levels of deprivation. Kentucky, where she is now based, is one of the most deprived US states, and Paterson is involved in a project to establish a materials-science exhibition at the Lexington Children’s Museum.
Above and beyond
Other women recognized in this year’s awards include Rose Huizenga, the runner-up in the Science Outreach category, who founded Coral Catch, a women-led marine conservation organization based in Indonesia.
Diversify Nobel-prize nominations before it’s too late
Nandintsetseg Dejid, the runner-up in the Scientific Achievement category, studies land-migrating animals in Central Asia. She is based at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Frankfurt, Germany.
And Victoria Peterson, a biomedical engineer at the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Litoral in Santa Fe, Argentina, received a special judges’ commendation for her study of brain–computer interfaces for neurorehabilitation and for her commitment to empowering the next generation of researchers in her field across Latin America.
We’re proud of our winners, those shortlisted, and all that they embody. We wish them, and everyone nominated, the very best, and look forward to seeing them flourish.
