TEHRAN – Turkish Professor Mehmet Toner, a 2025 laureate of the Mustafa Prize, has pledged his share of the prize money to support the development of the Rasul Medal and provide research grants for young scientists.

Toner was named one of three laureates of the Mustafa Prize in 2025. Under the prize’s regulations, the $500,000 cash award was divided among the three recipients.

The biomedical engineering scientist has now pledged his share of the award to jointly support young scientists through the Rasul Medal and fund research grants for early-career researchers.

Before Toner, Professors Ugur Sahin, Omid Farokhzad, and Wahab Mirrokni, laureates of the Mustafa Prize in 2019, 2023, and 2025, respectively, had also donated their prize money to establish and sustain the Rasul (PBUH) Medal.

Born in 1958, Toner is a professor of biomedical engineering at Harvard Medical School. He received the sixth Mustafa Prize in 2025 for developing nanomicrofluidic systems. The technology isolates circulating tumor cells from the bloodstream, enabling earlier disease detection, monitoring of treatment progress, and the development of more precise therapies.

The Rasul Medal is presented alongside the Mustafa Prize to young scientists from the Islamic world under the age of 40.

The initial list of nominees for the second edition of the Rasul Medal, has been finalized.

The shortlist comprises four nominees in engineering sciences, four in mathematics, four in computer science, eight in biological and medical sciences, two in chemistry, and two in physics. The award ceremony for the final winners is scheduled to be held in December.

The initial list considered for the Rasul Medal included more than 100,000 candidates across seven scientific fields. The biological and medical sciences category accounted for 55,878 candidates, followed by 4,675 in physics, 7,897 in chemistry, 1,965 in mathematics, 5,589 in computer science, and 26,377 in engineering sciences. In addition, 14 candidates in the field of nanotechnology met the required criteria to be included in the initial list.

In order to appreciate prominent scientists and provide the ground for scientific cooperation and development worldwide, the Mustafa Prize was established in 2012 as a symbol of scientific excellence at the international level.

The Mustafa Prize, a top science and technology award, is granted biennially to the top researchers and scientists of the Islamic world in three categories: “Life and Medical Science and Technology”, “Information and Communication Science and Technology”, and “Basic and Engineering Sciences”.

The Prize is granted to works deemed to have improved human life, have made tangible and cutting-edge innovations on the boundaries of science, or have presented new scientific methodology.

One of the objectives of the Mustafa Prize Foundation is to establish a scientific network. The goal is not merely to introduce the prize laureates, but also to connect scientists, enabling them to be identified while creating an environment conducive to synergy, collaboration and mutual scientific exchange.