Mehmet Toner donates $160,000 Mustafa Prize money to support Rasul Medal for young scientists

Mehmet Toner, a 2025 laureate of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize, has donated his cash prize to support the advancement of the Rasul(pbuh) Medal, according to MSTF Media. Toner, one of three laureates of the 2025 Mustafa Prize, requested that his prize money be devoted to supporting young scientists through the Rasul Medal. Under the statutes of the Mustafa Prize, the $500,000 cash prize was shared among Toner and the two other laureates. In previous years, Ugur Sahin (2019), Omid Farrokhzad (2023), and Vahab Mirrokni (2025) have also donated their cash prizes to help establish and advance the Rasul Medal.

Born in 1958 in Turkey, Mehmet Toner is a professor of biomedical engineering at Harvard Medical School. He won the 2025 Mustafa Prize for the development of nano/microfluidic devices with clinical applications. His technology enables the isolation of cancer cells from blood, supporting early diagnosis, monitoring, and the design of precise treatments for patients.

The Rasul Medal, previously known as the Young Scientist Medal, was founded based on endowments made by Mustafa Prize laureates Ugur Sahin, Omid Farrokhzad, and Vahab Mirrokni. It is awarded to scientists under the age of 40 residing in Islamic countries. The inaugural edition of the Medal was held alongside the 6th Mustafa Prize in 2025. The Medal recognizes impactful works in the fields of Life and Medical Science and Technology, Basic and Engineering Sciences, and Computer Science by young scientists from Islamic countries. Candidates must be nominated by a third-party scientific or technological body, such as universities and research centers, reputable scientific and technological associations and institutions, academies of sciences, or science and technology parks. Candidates for the Rasul Medal must be under 40 years old at the end of the year in which the medal is awarded, meaning that candidates for the 2026 Rasul Medal must be born in 1987 or later. Winners receive a medal, a certificate, and a $10,000 cash prize in each category.

Established as a symbol of excellence and scientific merit of the young generation of scientific talent, the Rasul Medal promotes scientific and technological breakthroughs by young scientists in the Islamic world and recognizes their influential achievements. According to Mehr News, the donation by Toner follows a tradition of Mustafa Prize laureates contributing their prize money to support the next generation of scientists in the Islamic world.