UCLA Marks 10 Years of the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award and Names Zuzana Buřivalová as 2026 Winner of $100,000 Prize
AS ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES MOUNT, UCLA BETS ON THE LEADERS WHO COULD CHANGE WHAT COMES NEXT UCLA Institute of the
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The need for bold, innovative thinkers capable of addressing the world’s most pressing environmental challenges has never been greater. For the past decade, through the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award, the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES) has identified those changemakers early in their careers, giving them recognition, resources and a platform to advance their work. Tonight, UCLA celebrated the award’s 10th anniversary, recognizing Zuzana Buřivalová with a $100,000 prize as its 2026 recipient. Established by the Anthony Pritzker Family Foundation and administered by UCLA IoES to recognize exceptional environmental innovators under 40, Zuzana Buřivalová joins a distinguished community of prior awardees and emerging leaders working across conservation, climate science, environmental justice, clean energy, Indigenous stewardship and sustainable technology.
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Tony Pritzker and Zuzana Buřivalová, Winner of the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award from UCLA IoES and the Anthony Pritzker Family Foundation. Credit: Alexandra Foley
Buřivalová’s award honors her tropical forest conservation work giving biodiversity a voice through bioacoustic tracking and reporting.
“My sincere thanks to the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the Anthony Pritzker Family Foundation for this honor,” said winner Zuzana Buřivalová. “This award will enable me to bring our soundscapes from the Sound Forest Lab to new ears, pushing the conservational impact of our work to new heights.”
“We are so impressed by all three of the finalists that the award process has highlighted, and we certainly are proud of Zuzana Buřivalová and her accomplishments,” said Tony Pritzker. “It is incredibly rewarding to look back on the cumulative impact of awarding this prize for the past 10 years and see the ongoing accomplishments that past recipients have gone on to make around the world. Each year, choosing one winner becomes more difficult, and this year is no exception.”
“Congratulations to Zuzana Buřivalová, and to all three of this year’s finalists whose work reflects the kind of bold thinking and meaningful action the planet needs right now,” said Alex Hall, Director, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. “For 10 years, the Pritzker Award has allowed UCLA to recognize emerging environmental leaders from around the world and give their work a broader platform. We are incredibly grateful to the Anthony Pritzker Family Foundation for supporting this process and the remarkable changemakers who promise to advance the ideas and solutions that will shape our environmental future.”
The 2026 finalists – Zuzana Buřivalová, Doris Njagi and Suzanne Pierre, Ph.D. – represent the ambitious, interdisciplinary environmental leadership the Pritzker Award was created to recognize. Working across tropical forest conservation, ecological restoration, agricultural systems, microbial ecology and climate science, each is developing new approaches to some of the most complex challenges facing ecosystems and communities around the world.
Buřivalová, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and principal investigator of the Sound Forest Lab, has pioneered the use of bioacoustics to understand the health and biodiversity of tropical forests. By listening to the sounds produced by forest ecosystems, her research informs conservation in places and at scales where traditional approaches can be difficult to apply.
Njagi is the founder of Forest Restored, an organization working to restore native forests across East Africa while creating economic opportunities for smallholder farmers. Njagi developed a model that enables farmers to grow native trees while contributing to the recovery of natural habitats, demonstrating how restoration can support ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.
Pierre, a microbial ecologist plus founder and lead investigator of the Critical Ecology Lab, researches the intersection of global ecological change, social justice, and liberation of oppressed peoples. She brings together ecological research and community-centered approaches to examining connections between ecological change, social systems and environmental justice.
The award’s 10th anniversary offers a decade-long look at the impact of identifying environmental leaders at an early stage of their careers. Since its founding in 2016, the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award has recognized nine winners and 21 finalists from 133 nominees around the world, spanning fields including conservation, climate action, Indigenous stewardship, clean energy, environmental justice, sustainable materials and technology. Among the award’s alumni are environmental leaders who have gone on to receive broader international recognition including TIME 100 Honors and Earthshot Prize recognition.
The global reach of the award reflects the mission of UCLA and IoES. UCLA, recently ranked the number 1 public university in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, brings together researchers, students and experts across disciplines to address challenges that extend far beyond the university and Los Angeles. IoES is a cross-campus research institute dedicated to educating the next generation of environmental leaders and moving science into action, with work that spans local and global environmental challenges.
That mission is reflected in the way UCLA approaches the Pritzker Award. Each year, UCLA IoES draws on a network of distinguished nominators and experts to look across the planet for individuals whose work is already creating meaningful environmental change and whose ideas have the potential to shape what comes next. The 2026 nomination and review process brought together environmental scientists, conservationists, journalists, researchers, academics and other leaders from across the field, helping UCLA identify innovators working in diverse communities and ecosystems around the world.
Ten years after its founding, the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award has built a community of changemakers tackling the planet’s most consequential challenges from different disciplines, geographies and perspectives. Their work demonstrates that even amid unprecedented environmental pressures, innovative solutions are being developed around the world by people willing to challenge assumptions and create change. The award’s mission remains as vital as ever: to find these leaders early, support their work and give their ideas the reach they need to make an even greater impact.
For more information on the award, visit https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/pritzker-genius/
About the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award
The Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award provides $100,000 to a scientist, entrepreneur, engineer, activist or artist under 40 who is poised to make a game-changing environmental difference. Since 2017, the award has recognized 9 winners, 21 finalists and 133 nominees from around the world — including TIME 100 honorees, Earthshot Prize winners and leaders whose work spans six continents.
About UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES)
UCLA IoES is an interdisciplinary research center that supports sustainability and addresses global environmental challenges, translating science into real-world action at the front lines of environmental progress.
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