UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Joseph Cotruvo Jr., professor of chemistry at Penn State, has been named as a 2024 national finalist for the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists in the chemical sciences. The awards, administered by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences, recognize exceptional scientists in the early years of their professional careers.
The awards are open to scientists under the age of 42 who are working in the fields of chemical sciences, physical sciences and engineering, and life sciences. Honorees are selected based on the quality, novelty, and impact of their research and their potential for further contributions to science.
“This is a major and highly competitive award,” said Kenneth L. Knappenberger Jr., professor and head of chemistry at Penn State. “We have nominated some of our best chemistry faculty for this award over the years and I believe Joey is the first to receive this honor. It’s a clear indication of the importance and impact of Joey’s research and we couldn’t be prouder of him.”
The awards will be presented in a ceremony on Oct 1 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York to three laureates and 15 finalists chosen by independent juries composed of some of America’s most distinguished scientists, from 331 nominations at 172 institutions. Cotruvo was recognized for discovering and engineering biomolecules to sustainably harvest and purify rare metals, which are used in advanced technology, from electronic waste and the environment.
“This award reflects the tremendous efforts of my students, postdocs, and collaborators over the past eight years,” Cotruvo said. “I am humbled to be recognized as a Blavatnik National Award Finalist along with this cohort of terrific young scientists who are working to address some of the biggest scientific challenges of our time.”
The Cotruvo lab uses biochemistry and chemical biology to understand metal selectivity in biological systems. The group studies how bacteria selectively acquire and utilize lanthanides — a group of 14 metallic chemical elements — and applies what they learn to design biotechnologies for rare earth detection, recovery, and separations. The research team also develops and applies new tools to study roles of transition metals, particularly iron and manganese, in infectious disease.
Cotruvo has previously been honored with the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry by the American Chemical Society's Division of Biological Chemistry in 2024, the Ed Stiefel Young Investigator Award in 2022, a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2021, a Department of Energy Early Career Award in 2020, a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award in 2020, a Charles E. Kaufman Foundation New Investigator Award in 2018, a Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2013, and a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship in 2008.
Prior to joining the Penn State faculty in 2016, Cotruvo was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned a doctoral degree in chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012 and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Princeton University in 2006.
About the Blavatnik Family Foundation
The Blavatnik Family Foundation supports world-renowned educational, scientific, cultural and charitable institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and across the globe. Led by Len Blavatnik, founder of Access Industries, the foundation advances and promotes innovation, discovery and creativity to benefit the whole of society. Over the past decade, the foundation has contributed more than $1 billion to over 250 organizations. See more at blavatnikfoundation.org.