Fabian Isensee Wins Leopoldina Prize for Young Scientists

The National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina has awarded the 2025 Leopoldina Prize for Young Scientists to Dr. Fabian Isensee for his remarkable contributions to AI-driven medical image analysis. The prize, endowed with €5,000, recognizes his groundbreaking work in automated segmentation techniques, a key technology for tumor detection, disease diagnosis, and treatment planning. The award ceremony will take place on April 2, 2025, in Halle (Saale), where Fabian will present his research.

Fabian’s best known project is nnU-Net, an open-source deep learning framework that has become the de facto standard for medical image segmentation. By automating the configuration of neural networks for different datasets, nnU-Net has significantly lowered the barrier for researchers and clinicians to apply AI-based image analysis. His work has had a profound impact on the medical imaging community and beyond, with nnU-Net widely used in both research and clinical applications. nnU-Net was published in the renowned Nature Methods.

As the head of the Helmholtz Imaging Engineering and Support Unit ‘Applied Computer Vision Lab‘ at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Fabian leads a team advancing AI-based imaging solutions across various domains. His lab focuses on developing state-of-the-art segmentation methods, benchmarking AI algorithms, and ensuring the practical translation of cutting-edge research into real-world applications. With his innovative contributions to the field, this award recognizes Fabian’s role in shaping the future of AI-powered medical diagnostics.

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Leopoldina’s press release (in German)