John White donates his Wiley Prize share to OpenWorm

[Stephen]

Dear OpenWorm community,

I am writing with some wonderful news.

John White has donated his share of the 2026 Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences to the OpenWorm Foundation. It is the largest single gift in our history.

John White is the person who mapped the C. elegans connectome: 302 neurons, 7,000+ synapses, by hand, beginning in the 1970s. His 1986 paper "The Mind of a Worm" is the foundational dataset this entire project is built on. This year he was awarded the Wiley Prize alongside Drs. Rubin, Murthy and Seung for their foundational work in understanding neural circuits.

In a note accompanying his gift, John expressed his deep belief in the project's founding goal and his conviction that with modern data now globally accessible, that goal may well be attainable.

Full announcement with 2026 plans

The donation will support two things: updating the Worm Browser with newer connectome datasets, and student travel awards for those presenting OpenWorm-related work at conferences.

We are also now active on Bluesky. Follow us there for news and updates alongside this list.

Thank you for being part of this community. This is an exciting moment for OpenWorm.

Stephen Larson, PhD

Executive Director, OpenWorm Foundation