Mary Sue Coleman Award for Life Science Innovation & Impact
The Mary Sue Coleman Award for Life Science Innovation & Impact is a new $10,000 Grand Award to be presented annually at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). The award will be designated as a scholarship to be applied by its winner to the educational institution of his or her choice. Each year, the winner of the Mary Sue Coleman Award will be promoted globally, along with the winners of the other Grand Awards.
Judging Guidelines
The Mary Sue Coleman Award for Life Science Innovation & Impact is to be given to the finalist who best demonstrates excellence in life science research and seeks to improve the human condition. Projects that seek to address inequities in access and/or opportunity are encouraged.
Like the other top ISEF awards, the Mary Sue Coleman Award winner will be chosen from students winning first place in their category and will be announced at the Grand Awards Ceremony.
Background – Mary Sue Coleman’s Impact
Mary Sue Coleman is the President Emerita of the University of Michigan and the Past President (retired) of the Association of American Universities (AAU). She joined the Society’s Board of Trustees in 2013 and served as the Chair from 2019 to 2024.
Coleman has, during her career as a faculty member and administrator, been a national leader in higher education. Time magazine named her one of the nation’s “10 best college presidents,” and the American Council on Education honored her with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.
Prior to her role at AAU, Coleman was president of the University of Michigan from 2002 to 2014 (where she is now president and professor emerita) and president of the University of Iowa from 1995 to 2002. Long involved with the AAU, Coleman served as chair in 2011-2012.
In 2010, Coleman was tapped by President Obama to help launch the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke named her as co-chair of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Throughout her career, she has promoted the educational value of diverse perspectives in the classroom and within the academic community, and she has worked in numerous venues to improve access to higher education for all
Elected to the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine), Coleman is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In those roles, she has led major studies on the consequences of lack of health insurance within the U.S. and erosion of state and federal support for the nation’s public research universities.
As a biochemist and faculty member at the University of Kentucky, Coleman built a distinguished academic career through her teaching and research on the immune system and malignancies
Coleman earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry from Grinnell College and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds honorary doctorates from a number of institutions including Grinnell College, Dartmouth College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Notre Dame University, the University of North Carolina, Indiana University and Michigan State University.
Coleman is an alumna of the 1961 Science Talent Search and the 1959 and 1960 International Science and Engineering Fair.
The Society is humbled to have a champion in Dr. Coleman and have named this new award in her honor.
Learn more about the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair and about the awards presented at ISEF.