UC Irvine's Oswald Steward is Awarded 2026 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience

Oswald Steward is the founding and current director of UC Irvine’s internationally renowned Reeve-Irvine Research Center, where he has led efforts to understand neural repair and regeneration after spinal cord injury. Steve Zylius / UC Irvine

Irvine, Calif., June 10, 2026 — University of California, Irvine neuroscientist Oswald Steward has been awarded the 2026 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, one of the world’s most prestigious honors in science, for discoveries that fundamentally changed understanding of how neurons build, strengthen and modify connections in the brain involved in learning, memory and recovery from injury.

Steward, a Distinguished Professor of anatomy and neurobiology as well as neurobiology and behavior, shares the prize with Christine Holt of England’s University of Cambridge, Kelsey Martin of the Simons Foundation and Erin Schuman of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Brain Research. The four researchers identified local protein translation in neurons and established its importance for brain development and plasticity.

“Oswald Steward’s pioneering discoveries have reshaped neuroscience and expanded our understanding of how the brain learns, adapts and heals,” said UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman. “This honor recognizes a career of scientific excellence and reflects UC Irvine’s longstanding leadership in advancing research that improves lives.”

Steward earned a Ph.D. at UC Irvine and went on to become one of the world’s leading neuroscientists. He is the founding and current director of UC Irvine’s internationally renowned Reeve-Irvine Research Center, where he has led efforts to understand neural repair and regeneration after spinal cord injury.

Read the full press release in UC Irvine News.