Thuréus and Benzelius Prizes awarded for 2025
The prizewinners flanked by Permanent Secretary Jonas Bergquist (left) and President Agneta Siegbahn (right). Back row from left: Eszter Borbas, Simon Cervenka, Leyla Belle Drake, Marcus Söderström, Ben Johnson, Ylva Hasselberg. Seated from left: Ginevra Castellano, Hanna Mogensen, Sara Lindersson.
The Royal Society of Sciences has awarded the Thuréus and Benzelius Prizes in connection with the Society’s Day on 2 September. Nine researchers at Uppsala University were awarded for their achievements.
The 2025 Thuréus Prizes have been awarded to:
Eszter Borbas, Professor of Synthetic Molecular Chemistry at Uppsala University, for her significant contributions to the development of photocatalytic lanthanide-based reduction chemistry.
Simon Cervenka, Professor of Psychiatry at Uppsala University, for his significant contributions in identifying the biological disease mechanisms that underlie the development of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.
Ylva Hasselberg, Professor of Economic History at Uppsala University, for her original and incisive critical analyses of the conditions of the sciences in the capitalist era, and for her research on the importance of social networks for economic and scientific activity.
Ginevra Castellano, Professor of Intelligent Interactive Systems at Uppsala University, for her significant contributions to the development of computational social capabilities that allow robots to behave in a socially intelligent way during natural interactions with humans.
The 2025 Benzelius Prizes have been awarded to:
Ben Johnson, postdoctoral researcher at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), received his PhD in 2020 from Uppsala University for his excellent thesis entitled “Interrogating Diffusional Mass and Charge Transport to Optimize Catalysis in Metal-Organic Frameworks”.
Marcus Söderström, postdoctoral researcher in drug research at the Beijer Laboratory, received his PhD in 2023 from Uppsala University for his important research into the development of new peptide-inhibiting drug candidates.
Hanna Mogensen, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, received her PhD in 2022 from Uppsala University for her important research on survivorship in children and young adults with cancer.
Leyla Belle Drake, Doctor of Philosophy in the History of Science and Ideas, received her PhD in 2024 from Uppsala University for her pioneering work on the 1967 Russell Tribunal.
Sara Lindersson, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences, received her PhD in 2022 from Uppsala University for her important research in hydrology and environmental analysis.
Annica Hulth
The Royal Society of Sciences at Uppsala
- The Royal Society of Sciences at Uppsala is Sweden’s oldest scholarly society, having been founded in 1710 by Eric Benzelius the Younger and modelled on similar academies of sciences on the Continent.
- The Society is organised in four classes with a total of 130 ordinary members and has a scholarly network spanning most fields.
- The Lilly and Sven Thuréus Prizes were created as a result of a donation in 1971. It was originally a single prize, but by means of a permutation has become four prizes annually, one in each of the Society’s four classes.
- The Benzelius Prizes were instituted in the early 1980s in order to utilise the Society’s own funds to recognise and reward the achievements of deserving young researchers.