By Kat Procyk
Xiaowei Zhuang, David B. Arnold Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and this year’s Dickson Prize in Medicine winner.
Xiaowei Zhuang, David B. Arnold Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, is the recipient of the 2026 Dickson Prize in Medicine, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s highest honor. Zhuang has developed transformational technologies that have impacted multiple fields, especially neuroscience and cancer research, and are now widely used to study tissue organization in health, aging and disease.
Zhuang’s lecture, “Spatially Resolved Single-Cell Genomics and Functional Genomics,” will be given in person on July 16, 2026, at 2:30 p.m. in the Alan Magee Scaife Hall West Wing Auditorium on the Pittsburgh campus at 3550 Terrace Street. A panel discussion will follow, with a reception at 5 p.m.
The prize is given annually to an American biomedical researcher who has made significant, progressive contributions to medicine. The award consists of a specially commissioned medal and a $50,000 honorarium.
The Dickson Prize is often a precursor to other major recognitions and awards. Since 1970–71, the first year the prize was awarded, 17 Dickson Prize recipients have gone on to win Nobel Prizes. Twenty-four Dickson Prize winners also hold Lasker Awards, among the most prestigious accolades for biomedical research.
“ Xiaowei Zhuang’s work on single-molecule, super-resolution and genome-scale imaging fundamentally changes how scientists can observe and understand biology at the smallest usable scale—inside living cells and tissues,” says Anantha Shekhar, Pitt’s senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine. “Her work is revolutionizing the study of diseased versus healthy cells across any number of health afflictions and keenly represents the kind of game-changing science we aim to honor with the Dickson Prize.”
A pioneer in super-resolution imaging and genome-scale imaging methods, Zhuang invented stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM). STORM is a super-resolution imaging method that broke the diffraction limit and allowed light microscopy with nanometer-scale resolution. Using STORM, Zhuang discovered novel molecular structures in cells. She invented a genome-scale imaging method, multiplexed error-robust fluorescence in situ hybridization (MERFISH), which enabled spatially resolved single-cell transcriptomics, 3D genomics, epigenomics and functional genomics. Using MERFISH, she made discoveries in areas ranging from molecular signatures, spatial organization and functions of cells in complex tissues to the 3D genome organization and gene regulation in cells.
Zhuang received her bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Science and Technology of China, doctorate in physics from the University of California at Berkeley and postdoctoral training in biophysics at Stanford University. She received honorary doctorate degrees from Stockholm University, Delft University of Technology and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Zhuang is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is also a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, a member of the American Philosophical Society and a foreign associate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the European Molecular Biology Organization.