Baron-Cohen is founder and director of theÌę at the University of Cambridge, and is a professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, and fellow at Trinity College in Cambridge. He has published more than 750 peer reviewed scientific articles and has made significant contributions to many aspects of autism research.

In 2021, he received a knighthood for his services to autism, and in 2023 he was awarded the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) Millennium Medal, the highest personal award made by the MRC, for his work on the prenatal sex steroid theory of autism and his contributions to autism research and the public understanding of neurodiversity.

The prenatal sex steroid theory considers the potential non-genetic causes of autism that might interact with genetic predisposition. Autism is a form of neurodiversity, and the brains of autistic individuals develop differently, starting prenatally. Autism is partly but not completely genetic. For decades, it was unclear what other factors might contribute to the cause of autism but over the past 20 years, Baron-Cohen made two important discoveries that helped fill this gap in knowledge.

First, his team found elevated levels of prenatal androgens (sex hormones such as testosterone) in pregnancies that later resulted in autism. Second, they found that levels of prenatal oestrogens (sex hormones that are synthesized from androgens) were also elevated in pregnancies resulting in autism.Ìę

Baron-Cohen and his group thus provided ground-breaking evidence that prenatal sex steroid hormones, interacting with genetic predisposition, contribute to autism, a finding that independent research groups subsequently confirmed.

Baron-Cohen’s team also discovered that women with polycystic ovary syndrome – itself caused by elevated prenatal androgens – have an elevated likelihood of having an autistic child. This finding demonstrates that the source of the elevated prenatal sex steroid hormones in autism is partly maternal. This observation has now been replicated in several different countries using electronic health records.

In 2017, Baron-Cohen was invited by the United Nations to giveÌęa keynote lectureÌęon Autism Acceptance Day. He described how autistic people are excluded from many basic human rights. These include the right to education, health, dignity and employment.

Brendan Depue, associate professor in the University of Louisville Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and director of the Grawemeyer AwardÌęin Psychology, said Baron-CohenÌęhas had a profound influence on autism research over his 40-year career. These contributions include developing widely used assessment tools, advocating for the rights and well-being of autistic people and uncovering key areas of vulnerability such as higher suicide rates and failures to make reasonable accommodations for autistic people within the criminal justice system.

“His achievements directly align with Charles Grawemeyer’s vision to give an award that reaches beyond the scientific community to society at large,” Depue said.

“I am delighted to have been selected for this prestigious award. It recognizes the work of the talented team with whom I work in Cambridge, including outstanding PhD and early career postdocs who have worked on these projects. I am also pleased that the Grawemeyer Award will shine a light on our research which highlights both the disabilities and the strengths of autistic people, and the urgent need for greater support services for this vulnerable group in our society,” Baron-Cohen said.

Baron-Cohen will accept his award during a ceremony at the University of Louisville on April 14, 2026.Ìę

ÌęAbout the Grawemeyer Awards

Each year the Grawemeyer Awards honor the power of creative ideas to improve our culture via music composition, world order, education, religion and psychology. Business executive and philanthropist H. Charles Grawemeyer established the awards in 1984 at the University of Louisville.Ìę

Academics and community members choose among nominees from around the world to ensure that each winning idea is both innovative and accessible. The University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary announce the winners in December and present the awards at a ceremony the following April. The five award winners receive $100,000 each, which they may use, if they choose, to develop and accelerate the spread of their powerful ideas. Learn more atÌę

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“’God’s Ghostwriters’ argues that the arduous work of scribes, secretaries and copyists in ancient Roman society was the undervalued work of enslaved people. These enslaved collaborators helped produce some of the early manuscripts of the Bible, yet their work has been overlooked through the centuries,” said Grawemeyer Religion Award Director and Associate Dean of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Tyler Mayfield. “’God’s Ghostwriters’ and its author are worthy additions to our revered list of Grawemeyer winners.”

The Edward Cadbury professor of theology at the University of Birmingham, UK, Moss brings to light the labor of unnamed individuals who are integral to the content of the New Testament. Her scholarship encourages believers and scholars alike to find new meaning by acknowledging the fingerprints of those who have been marginalized.

“I am profoundly honored and deeply moved to receive the Grawemeyer Award in Religion for ‘God’s Ghostwriters’,” said Moss. “To be counted among such an extraordinary and visionary group of previous recipients – scholars whose work has shaped the field and broadened public understanding – is both humbling and inspiring. This honor affirms the importance of telling fuller, more honest stories about the people whose labor created the texts that have shaped our world, and I am grateful beyond words.”

Moss, who previously won the John Templeton Award for Theological Promise, is a frequent contributor to major media outlets like CBS News, National Geographic and The New York Times.

The Grawemeyer Award for Religion is given annually to honor significant contributions to religious and spiritual understanding. Moss will present a public lecture on her work at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary on Thursday, April 16, 2026, where she will formally receive the award from the seminary and the University of Louisville.

About the Grawemeyer Awards

Each year the Grawemeyer Awards honor the power of creative ideas to improve our culture via music composition, world order, education, religion and psychology. Business executive and philanthropist H. Charles Grawemeyer established the awards in 1984 at the University of Louisville.

Academics and community members choose among nominees from around the world to ensure that each winning idea is both innovative and accessible. The University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary announce the winners in December and present the awards at a ceremony the following April. The five award winners receive $100,000 each, which they may use, if they choose, to develop and accelerate the spread of their powerful ideas. Learn more atÌę

Gross theorized that managing one’s feelings before they are fully formed (antecedent-focused emotion regulation) offers a healthier approach than trying to manage them after they’re in full swing (response-focused emotion regulation). In testing these predictions, he examined prototypical examples of each type of emotion regulation: cognitive reappraisal, which involves interpreting a potentially emotional situation in a way that alters its impact, and expressive suppression, which involves inhibiting the behaviors that are associated with one’s feelings.

“Bringing simplicity to an age-old debate, James Gross has demonstrated that the manner in which people regulate their emotions deeply affects their lives and the lives of others,” saidÌęGrawemeyerÌęPsychology Award Director Brendan E. Depue. “Moreover, he and his research team have shown that reappraisal interventions — teaching people how to regulate their feelings before the feelings have ‘taken over’ — can dramatically improve the way people interpret and handle stress. Emotion regulation exemplifies the kind of powerful idea Charles Grawemeyer had in mind when he established the Psychology Award.”

Notable previous winners whose work relates to Gross’s include Aaron Beck, the father of cognitive therapy, who won the 2004 Grawemeyer; Antonio Damasio, who demonstrated the integral role emotions play in human reasoning and decision-making (2014); and James McGaugh, a neuroscientist who helped explain the way our emotions affect what we learn and remember (2015).

Gross will accept his award at a ceremony in Louisville on April 10. Ìę

About the Grawemeyer Awards

Each year the Grawemeyer Awards honor the power of creative ideas to improve our culture via music composition, education, religion, psychology, and world order. Business executive and family man H. Charles Grawemeyer established the awards in 1984 at the University of Louisville in collaboration with Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Academics and community members choose among nominees from around the world to ensure that each winning idea is relevant to society at large. The University of Louisville announces the winners in December and presents the awards at a ceremony the following April. Each award winner receives $100,000, which they may use, if they choose, to develop and accelerate the spread of their powerful ideas. Learn more at .

Not only younger people with apparent disabilities, but also all those who manage to grow old — and everyone who loves a member of either group — will appreciate the ideas Belser set down in her book “Loving Our Own Bones,” which also won a National Jewish Book Award. In it, Belser uses disability theory and her own experience to rethink Biblical texts and rabbinic literature. The result is a rereading of Biblical characters such as Moses, Isaac, and Jacob, leading to an engaging analysis of ableism, and a refreshing political and social view of disability.

“Instead of grounding her work in the standard question of what the Jewish and Christian traditions say about disability, Belser asks how disability experience can serve as a ‘generative force,’ a ‘source of embodied knowledge’ about our spiritual lives,” said Grawemeyer Religion Award Director and Interim Dean of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Tyler Mayfield. “’Loving Our Own Bones’ and Rabbi Belser are worthy additions to our revered list of Grawemeyer winners.”

The first Grawemeyer Religion Award went to E.P. Sanders in 1990 for his provocative book “Jesus and Judaism.” Acclaimed author Marilynne Robinson won the 2006 Grawemeyer Religion Award for “Gilead“ – the only time a novel has won. Rabbi Belser also joins the company of distinguished professors Stephen L. Carter (“The Culture of Disbelief”) and Diana Eck (“Encountering God“) in winning the Grawemeyer Religion Award.

Charles Marsh, who won the 1998 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for “God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights,” later described the impact the prize had on his career: “The Grawemeyer Award encouraged me to imagine concrete strategies for integrating the lessons I had learned into the practices of academic teaching and research of a new generation. It inspired me to think creatively of ways I might encourage other scholars to make journeys of their own.”

Rabbi Belser will accept her award at a ceremony in Louisville on April 10.

About the Grawemeyer Awards

Each year the Grawemeyer Awards honor the power of creative ideas to improve our culture via music composition, education, religion, psychology, and world order. Business executive and family man H. Charles Grawemeyer established the awards in 1984 at the University of Louisville in collaboration with Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Academics and community members choose among nominees from around the world to ensure that each winning idea is relevant to society at large. The University of Louisville announces the winners in December and presents the awards at a ceremony the following April. Each award winner receives $100,000, which they may use, if they choose, to develop and accelerate the spread of their powerful ideas. Learn more at .

In the book, Warren shows that some of the first people to name and challenge the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) in a way that created a movement for change were Black and Brown parents and students of color in places like the Mississippi Delta. The movement they created played a pivotal role in placing the STPP on the agenda of educators and policymakers and led directly to the adoption by the Department of łÉÈËֱȄ of federal guidelines warning against racially discriminatory school discipline policies. Where grassroots organizing has been strong and persistent, policymakers have ended zero-tolerance discipline policies and moved towardÌęrestorative alternatives, leading to important declines in exclusionary discipline, as well as moreÌęrecent reforms to eliminate policing practices in schools.

“Change efforts in schools often focus on educators and school leaders, but usually fall short when it comes to addressing deep-seated systems that perpetuate inequity,” saidÌęGrawemeyer Award for łÉÈËֱȄ DirectorÌęand University of Louisville Professor of łÉÈËֱȄal Psychology Jeff Valentine. “As ‘Willful Defiance’Ìępowerfully demonstrates, the voices, experiences, and leadership of those most affected by these issues must be central to any meaningful process of change.”

The Grawemeyer Award for łÉÈËֱȄ has been given annually since 1989. Notable winners whose scholarship has influenced Warren include Howard Gardner, Linda Darling-Hammond, James Comer, Carol Gilligan, and Diane Ravitch.

Warren will accept his award at a ceremony in Louisville on April 10.

“I’m honored to receive this award, and particularly gratified to see community-engaged scholarship recognized with the highest merit,” said Warren. “I thank my community partners, Black and Brown parents, students, and community organizers, who worked with me to produce this book as part of a movement for educational justice.”Ìę

About the Grawemeyer Awards

Each year the Grawemeyer Awards honor the power of creative ideas to improve our culture via music composition, education, religion, psychology, and world order. Business executive and family man H. Charles Grawemeyer established the awards in 1984 at the University of Louisville in collaboration with Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Academics and community members choose among nominees from around the world to ensure that each winning idea is relevant to society at large. The University of Louisville announces the winners in December and presents the awards at a ceremony the following April. Each award winner receives $100,000, which they may use, if they choose, to develop and accelerate the spread of their powerful ideas. Learn more at .

Reminiscent of an earlier era of political science, the wide-ranging work grapples with intellectual ideas that will have direct impact on the worlds of politics, policy, and government — such as the likely future of international order, with an emphasis on the competition between democracies and autocracies. Historically rich and sophisticated, its breadth spans international relations, political theory, and comparative politics.

“Political scientists have tended to analyze democratic longevity and crises in domestic terms,” said University of Louisville professor of political science and University Scholar Charles E. Ziegler, director of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. “They generally look at internal economic structure, income levels, and a society’s cultural traits. Owen’s exposition of the role of the international ecosystem marks a major contribution to our understanding of world order.”

The Grawemeyer Award for World Order has been given annually since 1988. Professor Owen appreciates the influence of a number of past Grawemeyer Award winners, particularly 1989 winner Robert Keohane, whose “After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy” inspired Owen, then a Keohane advisee, to investigate the way international institutions work. In addition, 1992 winner Samuel Huntington, one of Owen’s graduate-school mentors, prompted Owen to attend to the waxing and waning global fortunes of democracy, as well as to international contagion.ÌęThe work of Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, winners in 2000 for “Activists beyond Borders,” showed Owen how transnational groups carry ideas and practices across national boundaries.

Owen will accept his award at a ceremony in Louisville on April 10.

About the Grawemeyer Awards

Each year the Grawemeyer Awards honor the power of creative ideas to improve our culture via music composition, education, religion, psychology, and world order. Business executive and family man H. Charles Grawemeyer established the awards in 1984 at the University of Louisville in collaboration with Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Academics and community members choose among nominees from around the world to ensure that each winning idea is relevant to society at large. The University of Louisville announces the winners in December and presents the awards at a ceremony the following April. Each award winner receives $100,000, which they may use, if they choose, to develop and accelerate the spread of their powerful ideas. Learn more at .

A 2015 recipient of an Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung Composer Prize, Mason has recently held residencies at the SWR Experimetalstudio Freiburg and the Internationales KĂŒnstlerhaus Villa Concordia Bamberg. In London, he serves as mentor to the LSO Panufnik Young Composers Project and the Philharmonia Composers’ Academy, and he recently mentored the Hong Kong Composers’ Scheme. His winning work, which premiered at the prestigious Wittener Tage fĂŒr Neue Kammermusik by the world-renowned performers Gareth Davis, Krassimir Sterev, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and the Arditti String Quartet, uses texts written by the inimitable Paul Griffiths, who has now written texts to three Grawemeyer-Award-winning works.

“In its duration, instrumentation, and musical aesthetic, Invisible Threads challenges its listeners even as it speaks to a broad audience in a musically passionate and artistic way,” said Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition Director Matthew Ertz, music librarian and associate professor at the University of Louisville’s Anderson Music Library.Ìę“This ‘performance installation’ invites attendees to choose the way they encounter this work, enabling each to have a different experience, even as all enjoy this breathtaking music anew.”

The Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition has been given annually since 1985. Notable winners to whom Mason feels close include György Ligeti, Harrison Birtwistle, Pierre Boulez, Kaija Saariaho, Unsuk Chin and Julian Anderson. Birtwistle’s 1987 winning work The Mask of Orpheus is seen as a landmark in opera, and Saariaho won the 2003 Grawemeyer Award with her first opera, L’amour de loin.

“I’m profoundly grateful to join the company of Grawemeyer awardees,” said Mason. “This recognition of “Invisible Threads“ encourages me to dig even more deeply into long-held dreams and visions.”

Mason will accept his award at a ceremony in Louisville on April 10.

About the Grawemeyer Awards

Each year the Grawemeyer Awards honor the power of creative ideas to improve our culture via music composition, education, religion, psychology, and world order. Business executive and family man H. Charles Grawemeyer established the awards in 1984 at the University of Louisville in collaboration with Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Academics and community members choose among nominees from around the world to ensure that each winning idea is relevant to society at large. The University of Louisville announces the winners in December and presents the awards at a ceremony the following April. Each award winner receives $100,000, which they may use, if they choose, to develop and accelerate the spread of their powerful ideas. Learn more at .

It was an opportunity for her to put her work in context for herself in a way she had never done before, Vrebalov, 53, told the audience at the University of Louisville on April 11.

Vrebalov, a Serbian-American composer who now resides in New York City, was awarded the 2024 for “‘.”

The Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, which was the first of the five , typically receives 150 to 200 entries each year from around the world.

The work’s Latin title translates to “Mass Above Words” in English. The nontraditional work, which is performed by string quartets and girls’ chorus, features just two words in English.

“Words are not essential,” she said. “And I will say again – words are not essential for us to understand, and have insight into the abstract concepts of creativity, truth, beauty and love. These concepts represent the mental aspects of human existence and transcend language.”

Kronos Quartet, a group long known for nurturing musical innovation, and San Francisco Girls’ Chorus, a Bay Area group for young women from diverse backgrounds, premiered the work in 2018 in San Francisco.

Following her presentation, the audience had the opportunity to fully take in “Missa Supratext” by listening to the 22-minute work, which includes handbells, Tibetan bowls and musical saw.

Vrebalov said through her music, she hopes to bring people together.

“It’s about my own yearning for a world that’s filled with love and a world in which we can experience connection and belonging,” she said.

ÌęThat’s why “Missa Supratext” deliberately has no recognizable language, she said.

“We have reached a point of realizing individual freedoms as never before in history, and at the same time, our communities are fragmenting into increasingly separate worlds that often exclude each other,” Vrebalov said.

Her idea – to create a work that forces people to confront human existence – inspired her to “bypass traditional language elements and focus on a nonverbal dramatic narrative.”

“Words move us, but music can move us in ways that are not always easy to explain because it doesn’t require language,” Vrebalov said.

The $100,000 Grawemeyer prizes also honor seminal ideas in ,Ìę,ÌęÌęandÌę. Winners visit Louisville to accept their awards and give free talks on their winning ideas.

.Ìę

UofL presents the annual prizes in music, world order, psychology, education and religion and gives the religion prize jointly with the seminary. All of the 2024 winners will visit Louisville in April to give free, public talks on their winning ideas.

The winners are:

• Aleksandra Vrebalov, a Serbian-American composer who won the music prize for a chorale work transcending a single language, culture or religion to express how all life is interconnected
• Neta Crawford, a University of Oxford international relations scholar who won the world order prize for analyzing the Pentagon’s carbon footprint and its effect on climate change
• Ann Masten, a University of Minnesota child development scholar who won the psychology prize for finding that resilience comes from “ordinary magic” within us and our supportive connections with others
• Laura Hamilton and Kelly Nielsen, two University of California sociologists who co-won the education prize for exploring the racial consequences of funding cuts at public universities
• The Rev. Charles Halton, an Episcopal priest in Lexington, Ky., who explained how embracing God as a being with human qualities can inspire us to become better people

“The Grawemeyer Awards recognize highly constructive ideas with world-changing potential and that’s certainly true of the ideas we’re honoring this time.” said Marion Hambrick, the awards program’s executive director.

Vrebalov shows how music can unite us despite our differences, while Crawford sheds new light on the U.S. military’s role in climate change. Masten explains why some people recover quickly from major setbacks when others don’t. Hamilton and Nielsen call for a fairer way to fund the nation’s public universities and Halton offers a fresh perspective on spiritual growth.

UofL graduate Charles Grawemeyer created the Grawemeyer Awards in 1984 with an initial endowment of $9 million. The first award, music composition, was presented in 1985. łÉÈËֱȄ was added in 1989, religion in 1990, world order in 1998 and psychology in 2000.

Grawemeyer distinguished the awards by honoring ideas rather than lifelong achievement, also insisting that laypeople as well as professionals take part in the selection process.

Theologians often dismiss those depictions of God in the Bible because they seem to clash with God’s image as an all-loving being, but an Episcopal priest with a different view has received the 2024 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for helping explain the paradox.

The Rev. Charles Halton, associate rector of Christ Church Cathedral in Lexington, Ky., won the prize for ideas set forth in his 2021 “A Human-Shaped God: Theology of an Embodied God.” He argues that embracing God as a deity with human qualities can bring us closer to God and inspire us to become better people.

“We are, like God, to move from a place of exclusion and anger-fueled violence to a life of inclusion, radical forgiveness and compassion,” he said. “This is the path God is on. If we are not on it too, we are not imitating God.”

As an example, Halton cites the Old Testament story of how God floods Earth, destroying everything except Noah’s Ark. Later, God feels regret and creates a rainbow in the sky.

“Many Bible accounts are springboards for theological imagination that help us see God in constructive ways,” he said. “As humans, we too lash out in anger, but we also learn to forgive.”

explores “an underappreciated view of God that exists in the Bible but is absent from most Eurocentric theology,” said Tyler Mayfield, who directs the religion award. “His approach is original, thought-provoking and offers new opportunities for understanding the biblical God.”

Halton taught Old Testament and Semitic languages at seminary and college levels for nearly a decade. He holds a doctorate from Cincinnati’s Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Bible and ancient Near East studies and is an external affiliate at the Centre for the Study of Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, London.

The University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary jointly give the religion prize.

Recipients of next year’s were named this week pending formal approval by trustees at both institutions. The $100,000 prizes also honor seminal ideas in music, world order, psychology and education. Winners will visit Louisville in the spring to accept their awards and give free talks on their winning ideas.