The 2021 MERAC Prize for the Best Early Career Researcher in Theoretical Astrophysics is awarded to Dr Antoine Strugarek (CEA Saclay, France) for groundbreaking contributions in stellar astrophysics, including dynamo theory, predictions of solar flares and pioneering work on star-exoplanet interactions.

The 2021 MERAC Prize for the Best Early Career Researcher in Observational Astrophysics is awarded to Dr Cosimo Inserra (Cardiff University, United Kingdom) for the investigation of the extremes of stellar explosions, providing a pioneering contribution to their understanding and their role in astronomy and astrophysics.

The 2020 MERAC Prize for the Best Early Career Researcher in New Technologies (Multi-Messenger) is awarded to Prof. Judit Szulágyi (ETH Zürich, Switzerland) for her fundamental contribution to the study of circumplanetary disks in planet formation, and the origin of the moons of giant planets.