Photo: The William Bate Hardy Prize 2026 winners Sir David Klenerman and Sir Shankar Balasubramanian, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge. Image: Millennium Technology Prize.

The 2026 William Bate Hardy Prize is awarded jointly to Sir David Klenerman and Sir Shankar Balasubramanian, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge for their contribitions to the development of the Solexa DNA sequencing technique, the effectiveness and speed of which has transformed biology and genomic medicine.

Cambridge has a long history associated with DNA from the discovery of the chemical structure of its constituent nucleotides, determining its folded double helix structure through to the development of Sanger sequencing. We are both honoured to be part of this legacy by contributing to the development of next generation DNA sequencing and for this to be recognised by the prestigious William Bate Hardy Prize. It is also gratifying to see this sequencing method now being used in hospitals for diagnosis of rare diseases, cancer and for prenatal screening. The development of this technology would have not been possible without the efforts of a large number of exceptional and talented people at Solexa and Illumina.

Professor Sir David Klenerman FMedSci FRS is the Royal Society GSK Research Professor of Molecular Medicine in the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. His work has focussed on the development and application of physical methods, particularly laser spectroscopy and single molecule fluorescence, to biological and biomedical problems.

Professor Klenerman is a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.

Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian FMedSci FRS is the Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry and Senior Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute in the University of Cambridge. His research is focused on elucidating the chemistry, structure and function of DNA and RNA. His research group aims to address questions of central importance to this field from a multitude of perspectives that comprise chemical, biological and computational approaches.

Professor Balasubramanian is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

The William Bate Hardy Prize is named in honour of Sir William Bate Hardy, FRS (6 April 1864 – 23 January 1934), a British biologist and food scientist. The prize was established in 1963 and the first award made in 1965.

Previous winners of The William Bate Hardy Prize can be found here.

Photo: Professor Sir David Klenerman (right) and Sir Shankar Balasubramanian in the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge. Image: Nathan Pitt, University of Cambridge