Advancing the Field of Developmental Biology

People love flowers. They have them in their homes and visit gardens to admire their colors and scents. For Nicholas Desnoyer, a postdoctoral researcher at the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, UK, this universal appeal is a powerful tool to spark curiosity about the development of living organisms. His science communication project, OpenFlower, creates novel designer flowers and plant development films for education and art.

The Elizabeth D. Hay New Investigator Award honors early career investigators—those at the pre-tenure assistant professor rank at the time of their nomination—performing outstanding and expansively impactful research in developmental biology. This year’s recipient is Jeffrey Farrell, who since 2020 has served as an Earl Stadtman Investigator in the Unit on Cell Specification and Differentiation at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development...