The 2026 MERAC Prize the Best Doctoral Thesis in Theoretical Astrophysics is awarded to Dr Armand Leclerc (Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Austria) for the development of a new topological description of waves and oscillations in stars, providing new insights into astero- and helioseismology.

The 2026 MERAC Prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis in Observational Astrophysics is awarded to Dr André Silva (University of Porto & Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Portugal) for providing new insights into the extraction of precise radial velocities and enabling the detection of Earth-mass and smaller planets.

The 2026 MERAC Prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis in New Technologies (Multi-messenger) is awarded to Dr Graeme McGhee (University of Glasgow, United Kingdom) for pioneering mirror coating materials that suppress