The International Society for Artificial Life is pleased to confirm the winners of the 2026 ISAL Awards. The awards were presented to recipients during the 2026 Conference on Artificial Life in Waterloo, Canada.
After a nomination process open to all members of the broader Artificial Life community, sub-committees reviewed the nominations and made recommendations that were then approved by the ISAL board of directors.
The awards and 2026 winners are:
| Lifetime Achievement Award – to recognize an individual who has made profound contributions to the field of Artificial Life, influencing the work of many others and helping to shape the state of the art. | Winner: Dr. Howard H. Pattee |
| Distinguished Early-Career Investigator Award – to recognize an individual who is early in their career (typically pre-tenure), but has already made important contributions to the field of Artificial Life. | Winner: Bert Wang-Chak Chan |
| Exceptional Service Award – to recognize an ISAL member who has provided truly exceptional service to the field of Artificial Life by, for example, helping to organize the Artificial Life community, developing valuable resources, or facilitating administration of ISAL. | Winner: Dr. Jitka Čejková |
| Outstanding Publication of 2025 – to recognize the authors of a publication in any venue during the previous calendar year that shows significant potential to advance the field of Artificial Life. | Winner: Kumawat, B., Lalejini, A., Acosta, M. M., & Zaman, L. (2025). Evolution takes multiple paths to evolvability when facing environmental change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(1), e2413930121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2413930121 |
| Outstanding Publication of the Decade 2011-2021 – to recognize the authors of an influential publication in any venue from five to fifteen years ago that has had a profound impact on the field of Artificial Life, as evidenced by follow-up research, citations, or attention brought to the field. | Winner: Sayama, H. (2011, April). Seeking open-ended evolution in swarm chemistry. In 2011 IEEE Symposium on Artificial Life (ALIFE) (pp. 186-193). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ALIFE.2011.5954667 |
| Education & Outreach Award – to recognize the authors of an outstanding project that either teaches about Artificial Life or uses Artificial Life techniques to teach about another topic, or inspires users to learn more on their own. | Winner: ALIFE 2025 Public Expo (by Dr. Imran Khan and Martha Emerson) |
| Outstanding Student Publication Award – to recognize a student or postdoc for a paper or other publication that they published while a student; any researcher who is still a student or within approximately three years of graduation is eligible. This award is judged by a committee organized by the ISAL student group, ERA (Emerging Researchers In ALife). | Winner: Kumawat, B., Lalejini, A., Acosta, M. M., & Zaman, L. (2025). Evolution takes multiple paths to evolvability when facing environmental change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(1), e2413930121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2413930121 |
Congratulations to all the winners!
For a list of past awards, see this page.