The 2023 MERAC Prize for the Best Early Career Researcher in Theoretical Astrophysics is awarded to Dr Manuel Arca Sedda (Gran Sasso Science Institute and University of Padova, Italy) for pioneering research in the dynamics of binary compact objects as gravitational wave sources in galactic nuclei and dense star clusters.

The 2023 MERAC Prize for the Best Early Career Researcher in Observational Astrophysics is awarded to Dr Dominika Wylezalek (Heidelberg University, Germany) for her pioneering work using state-of-the-art IFU instruments, in particular for her work demonstrating the impact of supermassive black holes on their host galaxies and the large-scale environment.

The 2023 MERAC Prize for the Best Early Career Researcher in New Technologies (Computational) is awarded to Dr Dylan Nelson (Heidelberg University, Germany) for his leading role in computational astrophysics, in particular for the IllustrisTNG series of cosmological simulations and his work to enable their widespread use.