AMI member Christopher Stewart named as laureate in 2025 UK Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists

Applied Microbiology International member Professor Christopher Stewart of Newcastle University has been named as one of three 2025 laureates in the eighth Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK.

As the largest unrestricted prize for UK scientists under the age of 42, the Blavatnik Awards celebrate Britain’s greatest young minds in their fields. This year, the three Laureates—each awarded £100,000 in unrestricted funds—were chosen from a shortlist of nine finalists, representing some of the brightest young scientific minds across the UK.

Among them, the three Laureates are tackling some of the most complex and pressing issues in science and society: infant mortality, green manufacturing and predicting long-term climate change. 

Necrotising enterocolitis

Professor Stewart - the only microbiologist among the finalists - has developed novel microbiome-based approaches to prevent necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), the leading cause of death in preterm infants around the world.

An AMI member, Professor Stewart is the 2023 winner of AMI’s WH Pierce Prize for microbiology and last year hosted an AMI webinar, Deciphering the Microbiome: Research and Applications in Early Human Development, which brought together leading researchers to unravel the complexities of the human microbiome’s role in early development. He is currently Professor of Human Microbiome Research at Newcastle University.

Wildest dreams

Professor Christopher Stewart said that being named laureate for the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK is beyond his wildest dreams.

READ MORE: The Stewart Lab

READ MORE: Dr Christopher Stewart named as winner of WH Pierce Prize

“The list of previous laureates in the Life Sciences category is incredible and I am excited, and still in shock, to now be named alongside them,” he said.

“My receipt of this prestigious award is only possible because of the many amazing people who have supported my research over the past 15 years. Bringing this recognition of microbiology and emerging human organoid technologies to Newcastle, the city I grew up in, makes it extra special.”

Global health pioneer

Professor Stewart is a pioneer in global health, developing microbiome-based approaches to prevent necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), the leading cause of death in preterm infants. Stewart’s work revealed the role of human breast milk in shaping the gut microbiome in premature infants, by providing abundant sugars that serve as an energy source for beneficial bacterial species.

Stewart has also established a novel premature gut organoid model and probiotic strategies to address NEC. This work is changing both local and global clinical practice, including clinical trials to improve infant nutrition and microbial-based therapy for premature infants in low-resource settings. Stewart is the first Blavatnik Awards Laureate from Newcastle University.

Laureates named

At the prize-giving gala at The Orangery, Kensington Palace, the winners of this year’s Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists (UK) were named as:

• Life Sciences Laureate: Professor Christopher Stewart (Newcastle University): Christopher leads a laboratory where groundbreaking research on microbiome-based therapies for pre-natal infant mortality is already making a life-saving impact.

• Chemical Sciences Laureate: Professor Liam Ball (University of Nottingham): Liam has transformed green manufacturing on an industrial scale, developing safer and more efficient methods of producing pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals with minimal environmental impact.

• Physical Sciences & Engineering Laureate: Professor Benjamin Mills (University of Leeds): Benjamin is transforming our understanding of climate change on earth and in space with revolutionary methods to predict long-term climate change. His research not only uncovers Earth’s climate history over billions of years, but also how other planets might evolve to support life. 

Sir Leonard Blavatnik, Founder of Access Industries and the Blavatnik Family Foundation said: “We created the Blavatnik Awards to honour promising scientists, early in their careers, where unrestricted financial support and public recognition will give them the confidence to take bold risks in their scientific research that address the world’s most complex and urgent scientific challenges.”  

Black-tie gala

The announcement was made at a black-tie gala, held on Tuesday, March 4, at The Orangery, Kensington Palace, hosted by Sir Leonard and Lady Emily Blavatnik and presented by Professor Shitij Kapur, Vice-Chancellor and President of King’s College London. Each Laureate shared their prize-winning research with the country’s leading figures in research, academia, business and the arts. 

In his opening remarks, Professor Shitij Kapur, FMedSci, Vice-Chancellor & President of King’s College London and internationally renowned psychiatrist and neuroscientist, told this year’s honourees: “As pioneers in your fields – your voices count. And in your own way, taking your own steps, as King’s graduate Bishop Desmond Tutu says, ‘you can change the world.’ And that is what we will hear about tonight – how your science is changing the world.” 

Career paths

The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists are the most substantial unrestricted awards available to UK scientists under the age of 42. Since their establishment, the Awards have recognised over 70 honourees from more than 100 research institutions. To date, the Blavatnik Awards have contributed more than £3.1 million to UK research. 

Blavatnik Awards honourees have gone on to found 50 companies, with six now publicly traded, collectively valued at over $12 billion. In total, Blavatnik Scholars have been granted over 7,300 patents. By the end of 2025, the Blavatnik Awards will have awarded nearly $20 million in prizes across their global counterparts in the UK, US, and Israel.

Members of the public interested in learning more about the research of this year’s Laureates and Finalists are welcome to register to attend the free, public symposium: “Imagining the Impossible: UK Scientists Changing Our World,” in-person at the Royal Academy of Medicine on 5 March 2025, from 11:00 to 16:00 GMT, or online. Register HERE.