Pierre Gönczy wins 2025 Lelio Orci Award
Pierre Gönczy ©2026 EPFL
Professor Pierre Gönczy at the EPFL School of Life Sciences has received the 2025 Lelio Orci Award for his transformative work in cell biology.
The Lelio Orci Award is awarded by the Lelio Orci Fund, hosted by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva and administered through Life Sciences Switzerland (LS2). It is awarded annually “to a scientist who has achieved an outstanding performance in fundamental cellular biology”. The prize is named after Lelio Orci, an emeritus professor at the University of Geneva.
The recipient of the 2025 Lelio Orci Award is Professor Pierre Gönczy at EPFL’s School of Life Sciences. Professor Gönczy’s research aims to understand fundamental cellular processes, including in the context of development. A main focus are the mechanisms governing asymmetric division and centriole assembly.
The official award cites Professor Gönczy for “his groundbreaking development of the first RNAi-based functional genomic screen in any organism, which unveiled core regulators of cell division across eukaryotes,” and for his work continuing to shape “our understanding of how fundamental cellular structures assemble and how their regulation underpins cell division and organismal development.”
“I am honored and delighted for this recognition of the work conducted by my team to push the boundaries of knowledge,” says Gönczy.