TAMEST (Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology) and Lyda Hill Philanthropies today announced the recipients of the 2026 Hill Prizes. The prizes, funded by Lyda Hill Philanthropies, propel high-risk, high-reward ideas and innovations that demonstrate significant potential for real-world impact and can lead to new, paradigm-shifting paths in research. The prizes are given in seven categories: artificial intelligence, biological sciences, engineering, medicine, physical sciences, public health and technology. They recognize and advance top Texas innovators, providing seed funding to advance groundbreaking science and highlight Texas as a premier destination for world-class research.

A Perspective by QST outlines a practical roadmap for “quantum life science,” spanning ultra‑sensitive diamond sensors in living cells, high-sensitivity hyperpolarized MRI for real‑time metabolism, and quantum effects that inspire new biotechnologies. The authors describe near‑term medical and industrial impacts—from precision diagnostics and drug discovery to efficient energy technologies—along with steps to scale these tools beyond specialized fields.

A recent study published in Physical Review Letters and carried out by researchers from EHU, the Materials Physics Center, nanoGUNE, and DIPC introduces a groundbreaking approach to solar energy conversion and spintronics. The work tackles a long-standing limitation in the bulk photovoltaic effect—the need for non-centrosymmetric crystals—by demonstrating that even perfectly symmetric materials can generate significant photocurrents through engineered surface electronic states. This discovery opens new pathways for designing efficient light-to-electricity conversion systems and ultrafast spintronic devices.

Guan’s group reports a nanorobot with ultrasensitive chemotaxis for precision cancer therapy. After intravenous injection, the nanorobots achieved a 209-fold increase in tumor targeting efficiency compared with conventional passive nanocarriers. When loaded with only 1% of the dose of anticancer drugs, the nanorobots achieved a tumor growth inhibition rate of up to 92.7%. The nanorobots boost the tumor suppression efficacy by approximately 49-fold compared with the passive counterparts.

Researchers at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Institute of Technology) have developed an innovative microscopy technique capable of improving the observation of living cells. The study, published in the journal Optics Letters, paves the way for a more in-depth analysis of numerous biological processes without the need for contrast agents. The next step will be to enhance this technique using artificial intelligence, opening the door to a new generation of optical microscopy methods capable of combining direct imaging with innovative molecular information.