| 1990-1992 | John Harvard Scholarship: Academic Achievement of the Highest Distinction, Harvard |
| 1992 | Phi Beta Kappa, Harvard
Summa cum laude, Harvard
Highest Honors, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Harvard |
| 1997 | Stanford Yanofsky Graduate Research Award |
| 2002 | NIMH Outstanding Resident Award |
| 2004 | American Psychiatric Association Resident Research Award
Charles E. Culpeper Scholarship in Medical Science Award |
| 2005 | Klingenstein Fellowship Award and Robert H. Ebert Clinical Scholar Award
Whitehall Foundation Award
NARSAD Young Investigator Award
American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education Young Faculty Award
McKnight Foundation Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Award
Coulter Foundation Early Career Translational Research Award in Biomedical Engineering
NIH Director's Pioneer Award |
| 2006 | Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE) |
| 2007 | McKnight Foundation Scholar Award
Top 10 Technologies Award, MIT Technology Review |
| 2008 | Brilliant 10 Award, Popular Science
World Economic Forum Lecturer, Davos Switzerland
William M. Keck Foundation Medical Research Award
Lawrence C. Katz Prize, Duke University, for optogenetics
Schuetze Prize, Columbia University, for optogenetics |
| 2009 | Society for Neuroscience YIA Award, for optogenetics
Society for Neuroscience Special Lecture: "Optogenetics: Development and Application" |
| 2010 | Gill YIA Award, Indiana University, for optogenetics
Koetser Prize laureate, Zurich Switzerland, for optogenetics
Nakasone Prize laureate, International Human Frontier Science Program/HFSP, for optogenetics
National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Election |
| 2011 | Alden Spencer Prize, Columbia, for optogenetics |
| 2012 | Perl/UNC Prize, for optogenetics
Record Prize, Baylor, for optogenetics
National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
Zuelch Prize, Max-Planck Society, for optogenetics |
| 2013 | Richard Lounsbery Prize from the National Academy of Sciences, for optogenetics
BRAIN Prize, Lundbeck Research Foundation, for optogenetics
Pasarow Foundation Award, for neuropsychiatry
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Premio Citta' di Firenze for Molecular Sciences, for optogenetics and CLARITY
Gabbay Award, Brandeis University, for optogenetics
Goldman-Rakic Award, Yale/NARSAD, for optogenetics and CLARITY |
| 2014 | Dickson Prize in Science, for optogenetics
Keio Medical Science Prize, for optogenetics
National Academy of Sciences, Germany (Leopoldina)
Wilson Prize (Harvard Chemistry)
Scientist of the Year (R+D Magazine) |
| 2015 | Albany Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, for optogenetics
Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences, for optogenetics and CLARITY
Breakthrough Prize in Life Science, for optogenetics
Dickson Prize in Medicine, for optogenetics
Adolph Meyer Award, American Psychiatric Association |
| 2016 | Massry Prize, for optogenetics
BBVA Award, for optogenetics
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
McGovern Award in Science |
| 2017 | Harvey Prize in Human Health, Technion/Israel, for optogenetics
Redelsheimer Award, for optogenetics
Else Kröner Fresenius Prize: "for his discoveries of optogenetics and of hydrogel-tissue chemistry, and for developing circuit-level insight into depression"
NOMIS Foundation Distinguished Scientist Award
|
| 2018 | Eisenberg Prize, University of Michigan, for "the field of optogenetics"
Rumford Prize, AAAS
NAI (National Academy of Inventors)
Kyoto Prize, "for the discovery of optogenetics and the development of causal systems neuroscience"
Leibinger Prize, for the "development and implementation of optogenetics" |
| 2019 | National Academy of Engineering
Alpert Award |
| 2020 | Heineken Prize from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, "for developing optogenetics - a method to influence the activity of nerve cells with light - as well as for developing hydrogel-tissue chemistry, which enables researchers to make biological tissue accessible to light and molecular probes"
|
| 2021 | Lasker Basic Medical Research Award to Deisseroth, Hegemann, and Oesterhelt for "the discovery of light-sensitive microbial proteins that can activate or deactivate individual brain cells-leading to the development of optogenetics and revolutionizing neuroscience" |
| 2022 | Luisa Gross Horwitz Prize, for optogenetics |
| 2023 | Japan Prize, in Life Sciences, for optogenetics |
| 2025 | Asan Award, in Basic Medicine, for "the discovery of light-gated ion channel mechanisms and the development of optogenetics" |
