Outstanding Early Investigator Award

Nominations for the 2026 OEIA are now closed. The next cycle will open in mid-October 2026.

This award recognizes an outstanding research effort by an early-stage investigator in the field of sleep or circadian research. Additional information will be available in the fall.

2026 Recipients

Kyla Mace, PhDUniversity of Pennsylvania

“Cross-species evidence for a developmental origin of adult hypersomnia with loss of synaptic adhesion molecules beat-Ia/CADM2” in Nature Neuroscience

Josh Leota, PhDMonash University, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School

“Dose-response relationship between evening exercise and sleep” in Nature Communications

Chenlu Gao, PhDMassachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital

“Timing and intraindividual variability of daytime napping and Alzheimer’s disease in older adults” in Communications Medicine

Past Recipients

2025 – Joana Dopp, PhD, Sina Kianersi, PhD, & Qiang Liu, PhD
2024 – Hailey Meaklim, PhD, Amy Poe, PhD, & Iris Titos Vivancos, PhD
2023 – Wenjie Bian, PhD, Stephanie Griggs, PhD, RN, FAAN, & Shady Rahayel, PhD, PsyD
2022 – Galit Levi Dunietz, PhD, MPH, James Dooley, PhD, & James Delorme, PhD
2021 – Lauren Hablitz, PhD, Shi-Bin Li, PhD, & Guliz Ozcan, PhD
2020 – Haoqi Sun, PhD, Li-Feng Jiang-Xie, PhD & Tetyana Kendzerska, MD, PhD
2019 – Jonathan Cedernaes, MD, PhD, Jacqueline Lane, PhD & Masahi Tabuchi, PhD
2018 – Thomas Andrillon, PhD, Daniel B. Kay, Ph, Daniel A. Lee, PhD & Andrey Zinchuk, MD
2017 – Ada Eban-Rothschild, PhD & Keith Hengen, PhD; Jason Gerstner, PhD, Jennifer C. Tudor, PhD & Shirley Xin Li, PhD, DClinPsy
2016 – Jonathan Lipton, MD, PhD, Divya Sitaraman, PhD & Andrea M. Spaeth, PhD
2015 – Christelle Anaclet, PhD & Sha Liu, PhD
2014 – Miranda Lim, MD, PhD, Rachel Markwald, PhD & Simon Warby, PhD
2013 – Josianne Broussard, PhD & John Lesku, PhD
2012 – Jeffrey Donlea, Maxine Bonjean & David Plante
2011 – Matthew Carter, PhD & Siobhan Banks, PhD
2010 – Eva Szentirmai, MD, Tracy Rupp, PhD & Mark R. Smith, PhD
2009 – Sara Aton, PhD, Georgina Cano, & Thien Thang Dang-Vu, MD, PhD