September 2, 2026
Jack Bravo named 2026 Vallee Scholar
ISTA researcher receives prestigious award to advance biomedical discovery
Assistant Professor Jack Bravo, a structural biologist at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), has been named a 2026 Vallee Scholar. The distinction recognizes his innovative research on bacterial immune systems and its potential to deliver lasting benefits for human health.
Bravo is one of seven early-career researchers to be selected for the annual award, established in 2013, which provides 400,000 US dollars in flexible and unrestricted funding over four years.
The US-based Vallee Foundation said Bravo and the other chosen scholars exemplify its “mission to support innovative, curiosity-driven science with the potential to transform human health.”
‘Freedom to pursue ambitious questions’
Bravo, who has led his own research group at ISTA since 2024, says he is deeply honored to receive the award.
“This recognition is particularly meaningful because it supports our lab’s efforts to understand one of the fundamental challenges in biology: how immune systems distinguish self from non-self with remarkable precision,” he says.
“The Vallee Scholar Award will give us the freedom to pursue ambitious questions at the interface of structural biology, biochemistry, and genomics, and I’m excited about what this will enable for the Bravo lab in the years ahead.”
