Jonathan Rivnay, a researcher at Northwestern University, has been awarded the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, recognizing his innovative work in soft electronics and biomedical applications. Rivnay’s research focuses on creating materials that can communicate with the human body, leading to devices capable of administering medication directly and enhancing personalized medical treatments.
Currently, as part of a project funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), Rivnay is developing biohybrid devices aimed at delivering personalized immunotherapy specifically for ovarian cancer patients. Additionally, he is working on a “living pharmacy” designed to provide digital prescriptions for managing type 2 diabetes and obesity. A critical aspect of this work involves developing a device to split water to produce oxygen, which is essential for keeping transplanted cells viable for long-term treatment.
This year, Rivnay is also launching the Living Electronics Initiative at Northwestern. “The intersection of electronics and engineered biology creates a tremendous opportunity to build technologies that can sense, respond, and work with biology in entirely new ways,” he stated, highlighting the potential applications across various fields, including medicine, robotics, manufacturing, and environmental science.
Rivnay’s achievements have garnered him several prestigious honors, including the Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation and the Young Investigator Program Award from the US Office for Naval Research. He was also recognized as a Fellow by the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2025 and listed as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher for the years 2023–2025.
William Dichtel, a fellow faculty member at Northwestern and the Robert L. Letsinger Professor of Chemistry, received the Blavatnik National Award in Chemistry in 2020. Rivnay is among several Northwestern faculty members previously recognized as finalists for this distinguished award.
