‘The possibilities for education are what excite me the most’

Uri Wilensky was honored at the Yidan Prize Awards Ceremony in Hong Kong where he received the 2025 Yidan Prize for Education Research. Wilensky received a medal honoring his achievements in computer modeling and simulations.

The ceremony was a part of the Yidan Prize Summit — an annual event that convenes more than 500 educators, youth and organization leaders from more than 50 countries highlighting the Yidan Foundation’s commitment to “bringing people together as a community that listens and learns from one another.”

Wilensky is the Lorraine H. Morton Professor of Learning Sciences and Computer Science at Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy (SESP) and the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is an early pioneer of advocating for the power of computer modeling and simulations.

During his acceptance speech, Wilensky shared his vision of democratizing computational thinking, asserting that the skill is fundamental literacy for every learner everywhere.

“The possibilities for education are what excite me the most,” Wilensky said. “Research has shown that studying complex systems makes it possible for us to create new languages of understanding. This process empowers young people to think in entirely new ways and use their own reasoning and creativity to solve complex problems.”

In 1999, Wilensky developed the free open-source tool NetLogo to facilitate an understanding of complex systems problems such as climate change, pandemics and economic instability. The platform allows users to explore and build models that illustrate how individual agents can interact with each other to create large-scale patterns. The same tool can be used by children and researchers alike, providing a universal language to approach complex issues in different educational and academic settings.

Bryan Brayboy, dean of SESP, also traveled to Hong Kong to attend the award ceremony.

“Uri Wilensky’s contributions to how we think about learning are extraordinary, whether it is making NetLogo available to schools across the world or helping us understand the complex intersections between learning and technology,” said Brayboy in September when the prize winners were announced. “Uri’s research lives at the intersection of learning, computation, complexity theory and computer science. While that sounds rather inaccessible for many, his life’s work has been about making it available to everyone. He’s a gift.” 

Wilensky concluded his speech acknowledging the quick evolution of tech in today’s world and the responsibility of educational researchers to steer the public in the right direction.

“I imagine many of you in this room are feeling overwhelmed by the changes that technology has brought into your lives and the world,” Wilensky said. “But we must confront these changes and the complex problems that come with it. We can’t close our eyes when we walk across the high-speed roadway.”

He continued: “If we, as researchers, can meet these design and research challenges, we might just reach the other side of this high-speed road in front of us — not just survive it, but repave and rebuild a beautiful and lasting pathway for those who come after us.”

Wilensky was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Education and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the National Science Foundation Early Career Award, the Spencer Foundation’s Post-Doctoral Award and the 2016 International Society for Design and Development in Education prize for excellence in design for his work on NetLogo.

The Yidan Prize, which was announced Sept. 29, is the world’s largest prize in education. The prize comes with $3.8 million in support, half of which is a project fund to expand and scale the winner’s education initiatives.

Founded in 2016 by Charles CHEN Yidan, a core founder of Tencent, the Yidan Prize has a mission of creating a better world through education. It consists of two awards: the Yidan Prize for Education Research and the Yidan Prize for Education Development.