We are still thrilled to have handed out the 2025 Letten Prize to professor Danielle Wood from massachusetts institute of technology (MIT)! Professor Wood received the prize for her for her outstanding work using space technology to create meaningful change for people on Earth.
In the video below, you may hear Danielle speak about her research. For further information, see the full citation.
If you are keen on cathing other glimpses of the Letten Prize celebration, look no further:
Prof. Danielle Wood was celebrated at the 2025 Letten Award Ceremony. Photo: Medvind
The Young Academy of Norway (AYF) and the Letten Foundation is very pleased to have handed out the Letten Prize for the fourth time, this time to prof. Danielle Wood from MIT. Prof. Wood received the prize for her outstanding work using space technology to create meaningful change for people on Earth. Her research evaluates the diverse ways space technologies can contribute to addressing global development goals, ranging from drought to deforestation to food insecurity, and she has pioneered novel techniques for applying space data to these challenges. Her collaborations across Africa empower local young scientists and institutions to harness space-based insights while building long-term capacity through training and education. By combining her expertise in systems engineering and aerospace with a commitment to sustainable development, Dr. Wood embodies the interdisciplinary and purpose-driven spirit of Letten Saugstad is and a highly deserving recipient of the Letten Prize.
Prof. Paula Moraga and her research was honored at the Letten Prize seminar 2025.
At the Letten prize day we also celebrated prof. Paula Moraga, the 2023 laureate. Prof. Moraga was awarded the prize for her pioneering research ambitions towards early detection of epidemics and design of control strategies worldwide, through development of innovative and cost-efficient disease surveillance systems at finer spatial and temporal scales than currently available.
The Letten Prize seminar is followed by a reception in honor of the laureates. A grand event for celebration! Photo: Medvind
The Letten Prize Day 2025 was a great celebration of science in an uncertain world. In honor of Letten Saugstad, the laureates research and projects will contribute to raise public awareness of how research can be used to solve global human development challenges.
Did you miss the celebrations? Have a look at our live stream that covers the events:
James Peter Allinson, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, United Kingdom
Leonie Wenz, Potdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Gerard Bryan Gonzales – Citation
Gerard Bryan Gonzales is an Associate Professor of Human Nutrition at Ghent University (Belgium). His research on data-driven approaches to child malnutrition is widely recognized and has significantly advanced the field of nutrition and global health. Simultaneously, his dedication to mentorship has provided numerous opportunities for young scientist from a variety of backgrounds.
Dr. Gonzales applyes advanced omics sciences, nutrition, and data-driven approaches to tackle childhood malnutrition. Dr. Gonzales transdisciplinary research bridges science, policy, and global health to combat childhood malnutrition and drive nutrition policy reforms. Dr. Gonzales research seeks to understand disease pathophysiology to inform clinical care, public health interventions, and global nutrition policies in collaboration with WHO, UNICEF, and MSF. His work also contributes to developing innovative therapeutic strategies, capacity-strengthening, and global health initiatives in low- and middle-income countries.
Dr. Gonzales’s research centers on the critical role of nutrition in child health, particularly focusing on severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in children. He investigates the systemic inflammation and metabolic thriftiness during in-patient treatment of children with complicated SAM. The research addresses key questions about inflammation, immune reconstitution, and metabolic reactivation, aiming to improve treatment outcomes and reduce mortality rates.
Dr. Gonzales and his team highlighted guidelines for developing Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) using alternative local ingredients, ensuring high-quality proteins and essential fatty acids for malnourished children. Alongside this work, he has documented and highlighted the challenges and opportunities in doing high technology studies in low- and middle-income countries. He is a strong voice arguing for the need for equitable scientific collaboration in omics research and the strengthening of local capacity.
Beyond research, Dr. Gonzales is deeply engaged in policy and advocacy, including participating in three WHO missions (2023 – 2024) in war-torn Ukraine to support national nutrition efforts, particularly in trans-fat elimination. These contributions reflect his commitment to scientific excellence, interdisciplinary collaboration, and policy impact, ensuring that cutting-edge research translates into real-world solutions for malnourished children globally.
With his strong commitment to global health to combat childhood malnutrition and drive nutrition policy reforms, Dr. Gonzales is a highly deserving candidate for the Runner-Up Award of the Letten Prize.
Ehsan Hoque – Citation
Eshan Hoque, PhD, is a Professor at the Computer Science Department at University of Rochester in New York. In his work, he focuses on integrating Artificial Intelligence in health diagnosis in ways that aim to better the lives of people who do not have access to medical practitioners, thus securing equity and equal access across the world.
A specific application that Dr. Hoque has built is PARK, Parkinson’s Analysis with Remote Kinetic Tasks, which is a web-based screening tool that can be used to automatically analyse video recordings of participants doing simple motor tasks. The application has high accuracy in detecting parkinsonian symptoms. Using such accessible tools, people who live in remote regions with limited means for travel or where specialised practitioners may be rare or expensive to consult, will stand a better chance of getting the right diagnosis.
Dr. Hoque does not only care about building tools that can perform these feats – he is also involved in getting them approved by medical authorities, such that they can safely be used across the world. In his own words, his research has become a mission to him, as close relatives of him suffered from Parkinson’s disease with no means to get treatment.
For his unique and applied research into the matters of bringing equity to the health condition of people across the globe, Dr. Hoque is a worthy candidate for the Letten Prize Runners-up Award.
James Peter Allinson – Citation
James Peter Allinson is a respiratory physician and epidemiologist whose research has transformed our understanding of the origins, diagnosis, and prevention of chronic lung diseases. Based at Imperial College London and the Royal Brompton Hospital, his work redefines chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)—a leading global cause of death—not simply as a consequence of smoking, but as the cumulative result of early-life exposures, socioeconomic conditions, and missed opportunities for intervention across the life course. His findings challenge conventional narratives and point to the urgent need for more equitable, preventive approaches to lung health.
Dr. Allinson has also made critical advances in how lung function is interpreted globally. His work revealed that lung function among Europeans has increased significantly over the last century—insights that call into question standard diagnostic equations and the use of racially-adjusted lung function norms. In response, he has developed new reference models that more accurately reflect changing population health and promote fairness in medical diagnostics.
Dr. Allinson’s research is international in both scope and collaboration, with impacts ranging from clinical trials to population health strategies. He plays an active role in disseminating his findings to clinicians, policymakers, and the public.
For his pioneering work linking respiratory health to social determinants, his efforts to correct global diagnostic inequalities, and his deep commitment to improving health outcomes through science, Dr. James Peter Allinson is a highly deserving candidate for the Runner-Up Award of the Letten Prize.
Leoni Wenz – Citation
Leoni Wenz is Lead of research lab Societal Transitions and Wellbeing at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), since 2025. Previously, she was Head of research group Data-based Analysis of Climate Decisions at PIK, since 2019. She works in an interdisciplinary field of research, the so-called field of Environmental Economy. As Lead of research, she is deeply interested in the link between the environment and human wellbeing. Specifically, she seeks to quantify climate impacts on various wellbeing aspects, including economic development, human health, and societal cohesion, thus addressing several of the Sustainable Development Goals. Concerning this topic, she said that: “such quantifications are challenging and complex – due to e.g. interaction and cross-boundary effects – but crucial: key figures, tools and concepts used for climate change adaptation, mitigation and litigation decisions require cost estimates”.
Her research seeks to quantify the impact of climate change and inequalities with the aim of informing sustainable adaptation and development strategies. To this end, she combines a variety of data sources, from macroeconomic figures to indicators of day-to-day behaviour. She analyses them with a mix of quantitative methods, including statistics, econometrics, machine learning and numerical modelling. This focus on the details of climate impacts in space and time has enabled her research group to identify several novel impact channels in the climate-economy relationship, thus demonstrating that the costs of climate damages by far exceed those of ambitious climate action. As she stated, “such macroeconomic assessments are useful for policymaking because they provide aggregate damage estimates in monetary values”.
On the other hand, Dr. Leoni Wenz is a scientist that has a high commitment to widely spreading research results beyond the academic boundaries. Because of that, she has a lot of media mentions and in 2024 one of her papers was ranked the second-most important climate paper. She continuously disseminates her research results beyond the scientific community via media appearances, briefings and talks. Her findings were not only published in leading academic journals such as Nature, Science, or The Lancet Planetary Health but also picked up by national governments like the US White House, international organizations like the OECD, and supranational institutions like the European Central Bank.
For her excellent research on the field of Environmental Economics, Dr. Wenz is a very worthy candidate for the Letten Prize Runner-up Award.
The Letten Prize Board awards the Letten Prize 2025 to Danielle Wood for her outstanding work using space technology to create meaningful change for people on Earth. Her research evaluates the diverse ways space technologies can contribute to addressing global development goals, ranging from drought to deforestation to food insecurity, and she has pioneered novel techniques for applying space data to these challenges. Her collaborations across Africa empower local young scientists and institutions to harness space-based insights while building long-term capacity through training and education. By combining her expertise in systems engineering and aerospace with a commitment to sustainable development, Dr. Wood embodies the interdisciplinary and purpose-driven spirit of Letten Saugstad is and a highly deserving recipient of the Letten Prize.
Citation
Written by: Elena Krieger, member of the Letten Prize committee and Senior Director of Research and Policy Analysis at Just Solutions.
Danielle Wood is an Associate Professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Program in Media Arts & Sciences (MIT Media Lab), where she also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. At MIT, Dr. Wood leads the Space Enabled Research Group, whose mission is “advancing justice in Earth’s complex systems using designs enabled by space.” Dr. Wood received her undergraduate and master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering, a master’s in Technology Policy, and a PhD in Systems Engineering from MIT. Prior to joining the faculty, she worked at Johns Hopkins University, the Aerospace Corporation, and U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
She returned to MIT in 2018, where she uses space technologies to create meaningful change for people on Earth, ranging from using satellite data to track invasive plant species and deforestation, to expanding global access to space education and technology. Through this work, Dr. Wood contributes to achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals while empowering partners across the world to access and apply advanced technologies to improve local ecology, education, and societal well-being.
Dr. Wood leverages advanced space technologies, such as satellites, to address global challenges and advance justice on Earth. Her research team takes an interdisciplinary approach, blending aerospace and systems engineering, social science, design thinking, art, and data science. Dr. Wood tackles global developmental challenges from multiple angles, including: developing analytical frameworks to characterize and understand complex developmental challenges and solutions; designing novel technical tools that apply space technology and data to better understand land use trends; and collaborating on the ground with partners across the Global South to validate findings and empower teams and countries that have historically lacked access to space technologies. By combining her expertise in systems engineering and aerospace with a commitment to sustainable development, Dr. Wood embodies the interdisciplinary and purpose-driven spirit of Letten Saugstad and the mission of the Letten Prize.
Dr. Wood’s work has, from the outset, been directed at solving real-world challenges in collaboration with stakeholders such as governments, local communities and NGOs. She has analyzed how space and satellite programs are developed and implemented in countries around the world, using these insights to help strengthen the development of space programs across Africa. Her research evaluates the diverse ways space technologies can contribute to addressing global development goals, ranging from drought to deforestation to food insecurity, and she has pioneered novel techniques for applying space data to these challenges.
For example, Dr. Wood has mapped the invasive water hyacinth choking waterways in Lake Nokoué in Benin and collaborated with local partners to integrate these data into a decision-making framework. The partners at Green Keeper Africa are harvesting the invasive species both to mitigate ecosystem damage and generate local economic benefits. In Ghana, she has applied satellite data and machine learning to aid national agencies in identifying and monitoring Sustainable Development Goal indicators, including informal mining, deforestation (often linked to mining), and conservation efforts. In West Africa, Dr. Wood joined a team led by MIT engineer Dr. Stewart Isaacs who combined satellite and ground sensor data to analyze the impact of dust on solar power generation.
Dr. Wood plans to use the funds from the Letten Prize to expand her work in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Angola. She will collaborate with space agencies in each country to develop Decision Support Systems that address challenges such as invasive species, destructive mining, and deforestation. She will also conduct fieldwork with local partners in each location. Moreover, the project will host trainings and workshops to equip scientists and researchers with skills in satellite data analysis, mapping techniques, and their application to land use monitoring and the Sustainable Development Goals, thereby building capacity and advancing expertise in these contexts. Dr. Wood also plans for her team to produce a documentary highlighting the careers of African scientists and engineers working to address these pressing challenges.
Dr. Wood’s work embodies the spirit of the Letten Prize through her use of interdisciplinary methods, spanning engineering, design, and the social sciences, to address global environmental and development challenges. She enables the empowerment of partners by expanding access to advanced space technologies while inspiring and training the next generation of scientists. For these contributions, Dr. Wood is a highly deserving recipient of the Letten Prize.
Today, the Letten Prize Committee meets to continue the process leading up to the announcement of the winner and runners-up of the Letten Prize 2025. Over the coming months, the committee will evaluate outstanding researchers from around the world to identify the candidate who best combines academic excellence with a strong commitment to society.
About the Committee The Letten Prize Committee consists of distinguished researchers from various disciplines and institutions. Its members have been carefully selected to ensure a broad and rigorous evaluation of the candidates. A full overview of the committee members can be found here: Letten Prize Committee.
About the Letten Prize The Letten Prize is awarded every other year to a young researcher under the age of 45 who has conducted outstanding research with societal impact. The prize aims to support research that contributes to solving global challenges and fostering international collaboration. The winner receives NOK 2.5 million, of which NOK 2 million is for research activities and NOK 500,000 is a personal award. Learn more about the prize here: About the Letten Prize.
Stay tuned for updates as we move closer to the announcement!
