Alex Lupsasca to Receive Jon C. Graff, Ph.D. Prize for Excellence in Science Communication

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Society for Science today announced that Alex Lupsasca, a Research Scientist at OpenAI and an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University, has won the $1,000 Jon C. Graff, Ph.D. Prize for Excellence in Science Communication. Now in its seventh year, the award is given to one scientist included in the Science News’ Scientist to Watch list, which highlighted five early- and mid-career boundary-pushing scientists. More information about all five Scientists to Watch can be found here.

“Congratulations to Dr. Lupsasca on exemplifying what it means to be an outstanding scientist and an extraordinary science communicator,” said Maya Ajmera, President and CEO of Society for Science and Executive Publisher of Science News. “Great science can only reach its full potential when it is communicated with ease and eloquence.”

Lupsasca is a theorist specializing in black holes, classical and quantum gravity and relativistic astrophysics. He is currently developing a NASA mission proposal to launch a satellite into Earth orbit that will take the sharpest images in the history of astronomy: the Black Hole Explorer (BHEX), which is designed to peer all the way down to the event horizon of a black hole and measure the “photon ring” of light that orbits around it.

Lupsasca is a co-recipient of the 2024 New Horizons in Physics Prize from the Breakthrough Foundation and received the 2024 IUPAP General Relativity and Gravitation Early Career Scientist Prize from the International Society on General Relativity & Gravitation for his work on black hole imaging.

He received his undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University and was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows before joining the Princeton Gravity Initiative as an Associate Research Scholar.

The four-member Graff Prize selection committee said they were impressed with Lupsasca’s “genuine excitement” about studying black holes. They shared that Lupsasca explains complex ideas in a clear, engaging way that captures why his work around black holes is important.

In choosing a winner of the Graff Prize, the selection committee considered the scientists’ ability to communicate the long-term value of their work for society, something donor Jon C. Graff, Ph.D. prized in a science communicator. A Science News reader since 1974, Graff was a pioneer in digital cryptography. Graff passed away in January 2021.

About Society for Science
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