The International Society of Nephrology (ISN) will honor several 2026 award recipients at the ISN World Congress of Nephrology 2026 (WCN’26). The event will take place March 28-31 in Yokohama, Japan.
ISN Award Winners
Vivekanand Jha, MBBS, MD, will receive the Jean Hamburger Award for outstanding research in nephrology with a clinical emphasis. Dr. Jha is executive director of the George Institute for Global Health, India, chair of global kidney health at Imperial College London, UK, and a former ISN president.
John A. Kellum, MD, is this year’s recipient of the Bywaters Award for exceptional contributions to understanding acute kidney injury. Dr. Kellum is Distinguished Professor of Critical Care Medicine, Medicine, Bioengineering and Clinical and Translational Science and holds an endowed chair in critical care research from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. He is on leave while serving as chief medical officer for Spectral Medical, a medical device company.
Drs. Jha and Kellum will receive their awards during plenary sessions on March 28 and 29, respectively.
Kaplan Prize
Ron T. Gansevoort, MD, PhD, is the 2026 recipient of the Lillian Jean Kaplan International Prize for excellence and leadership in clinical or basic research in polycystic kidney disease. Dr. Gansevoort is a professor of medicine and nephrologist at the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands and is a former board member of the European Renal Association.
Dr. Gansevoort will receive his award on March 30, at which time he will present a lecture on disease-modifying drugs for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.
Other Honorees
Also scheduled for March 30 is an ISN Program Awards presentation, during which recent participants in the ISN Fellowship and Mentorship Programs will present their winning abstracts. The awardees are Henry H. L. Wu, MBChB, PhD; Sukanya Govindan, MBBS, MD; Priya Pais, MD; and Phu Tran Nguyen Trong, MD, PhD.
In addition, a March 30 session featuring the best of ISN journals Kidney International and Kidney International Reports will include the presentation of Early Career Researcher Awards and Best Reviewer Awards.