Elly Tanaka Receives the 2025 FWF Wittgenstein Award#
On the recommendation of an international jury of experts, the Austrian Science Fund
(FWF) has given the 2025 FWF Wittgenstein Award, Austria's most highly endowed research prizes, to biochemist Elly Tanaka MAE from the IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). Professor Elly Tanaka was elected as member of the Cell and Developmental Biology section of Academia Europaea in 2015.
“With Elly Tanaka, we are honoring a researcher who is redefining research in the best sense of the word: excellent, interdisciplinary, and highly relevant. Her work exemplifies basic research’s potential to drive medical innovation – specifically in the field of regenerative research – and generate new scientific insights. I am always particularly pleased to see women who have not hit the “glass ceiling” in their scientific work. Through her groundbreaking research, Elly Tanaka has demonstrated the innovative power that can be unleashed when women in science and research are given the resources and freedom to achieve great things. I would also like to congratulate the 18 FWF ASTRA Award winners and look forward to following their future work with great interest,” said Minister of Science Eva-Maria Holzleitner.
Jury statement: Groundbreaking contributions to regeneration research
“Elly Tanaka deserves the Wittgenstein Award for her pioneering contributions to understanding the development of tissues and their regeneration. At a time when these pathways were considered too complex and obscure for molecular analysis, Dr. Tanaka applied cutting-edge genetic and imaging tools to the axolotl salamander. She recognized the value of its unusual biology and was the first to draw conclusions about the lack of regeneration in other organisms. Her findings are already having an enormous impact on international regeneration research. She has also trained several junior investigators and she has a high public profile as an excellent communicator,” said the international FWF jury.
Academia Europaea congratulates Prof. Tanaka to this outstanding distinction!#
About Elly Tanaka#
Elly Tanaka was born in Boston, Massachusetts (USA). She studied biochemistry at the University of California in San Francisco and at Harvard University in Boston. After a research stay at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in London, UK, she established her own laboratory at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany in 1999. In 2008, she joined the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) as a professor, later becoming its director. From 2016 to 2024, Tanaka was Senior Group Leader at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna. She has been Scientific Director at the IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at the Vienna BioCenter since 2024.
Tanaka publishes in top journals on a regular basis and has already received two Advanced Grants worth up to €2.5 million for her work, as well as a Synergy Grant worth around €10 million euros from the European Research Council (ERC) as part of a collaborative project with several partners. Even before receiving the FWF Wittgenstein Award, the FWF has been funding her work for many years.
Elly Tanaka has received numerous awards, and is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the Leopoldina, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea, and the US National Academy of Sciences. In 2020, she received the FEBS | EMBO Women in Science Award, which recognizes outstanding mentorship and scientific achievements. Earlier this year, the Leopoldina presented her with the Schleiden Medal, which is awarded for outstanding findings in the field of cell biology.
FWF Wittgenstein Award: Austria’s most highly endowed science prize#
The FWF Wittgenstein Award is granted to outstanding researchers from all disciplines. The award, endowed with €1.9 million, supports the researchers’ work and guarantees them independence and flexibility in implementing their projects, giving them the opportunity to advance their research activities at the highest international level.
Professor Jiří Friml MAE from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) who was elected as member of the Cell and Developmental Biology section this year, received the 2024 FWF Wittgenstein Award.
