Best Personal Academic Websites Contest 2025

Entries to the 3rd Best Personal Academic Websites Contest are now closed.
We’re excited to celebrate your website! The 12 award winners were emailed on Saturday, October 25, 2025 by Jennifer van Alstyne. The official public announcement goes live on Thursday, November 6, 2025.

View the 2025 Award Winners

Entries closed on August 15, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. On Saturday, October 25, 2025, Jennifer van Alstyne emailed each of the award winners. They will be announced here publicly on The Social Academic blog on Thursday, November 6, 2025. View winners.

CONTEST LINKS

2025 Award Winners

Official Contest Rules

Entry Form (closed)

Contest Rubric

Download Flyer

Thank you for helping us share this contest!

AWARD WINNERS

2025

2023

2022

Do you have a personal academic website? Enter to win an award

I’m Jennifer van Alstyne of The Academic Designer LLC. My friends Brittany Trinh and Ian Li of Owlstown and I are teaming up again to bring you this professional development contest for

Faculty
Professors
Researchers
Scientists
Postdocs
Grad students
Independent researchers
Research labs and groups

This is the 3rd annual Best Personal Academic Websites Contest. Each year, it’s inspired people like you from around the world to create space for yourself online. And to celebrate the hard work you’ve put into your website project. I’m excited that we’re back again in 2025 to celebrate your website 🎊

This contest is now closed. Subscribe so you don’t miss the winner’s announcement on November 6.

Subscribe to The Social Academic blog.

The form above subscribes you to new posts published on The Social Academic blog.
Want emails from Jennifer on building your online presence? Subscribe to her email list.
Looking for the podcast? Subscribe on Spotify.
Prefer to watch videos? Subscribe on YouTube.

It’s never too early or too late to make your academic website a reality

Need a website? We have resources to help you.

Why you should enter

We want to recognize the hard work you’ve put into your personal academic or scientist website.

There will be awards in multiple categories. Here’s what you get if you win an award 🏆

A line on your CV
A digital badge for your LinkedIn profile and website
Be featured as a top academic website in the winner’s announcement and on social media
Bragging rights

This year’s contest has closed. Thank you!

Academic Websites Livestream

EVENT REPLAY

This event was recorded live for the 2025 contest.

Watch the livestream

Set up your website

EVENT REPLAY 2023

Setting up your personal academic website with Jennifer van Alstyne, Brittany Trinh, and Ian Li

This event was recorded live for the 2023 contest.

Watch the replay

Your Hosts

Jennifer van Alstyne helps professors feel confident when showing up online. The Academic Designer LLC is a minority woman-owned business helping academics share their research, teaching, and leadership on websites and social media since 2018. The Social Academic blog, podcast, and YouTube channel helps professors manage their online presence to build a strong digital footprint. Visit her personal website.

“This contest inspired so many people last year to make their own websites. I’m delighted we get to bring it back again this year. It’s never too early or too late to make your personal academic website.”

Brittany Trinh is a Vietnamese-American website designer and chemist. She helps enterprising scientists, science communicators, and academic entrepreneurs create a website that integrates your creativity and expertise. She hosts the Beyond Your Science Podcast. Brittany is a PhD candidate in Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Visit Brittany’s website.

“I hope that this contest will motivate more graduate students to get their websites done ASAP. I’m excited to see more academics share their finished websites on Twitter!”

Ian Li is the creator of Owlstown, a free website builder for academics. Owlstown websites are easy to make and maintain, so you can focus on your research. With templates for various research artifacts, Owlstown allows you to present your research in various ways to inspire and inform others.

“I am excited that the contest will encourage people to share their research by creating an academic website. I hope that the experience of creating an academic website will help people to think about how to present their research. I also hope that people may gain inspiration from each other’s websites.”

Resources to help you create your academic website

Articles, guides, and videos for your faculty website project. This resource list is from Jennifer van Alstyne, Brittany Trinh, and Ian Li to help you make your website. Our goal is to help as many people as possible. Please share with your friends 💌

Check out Brittany’s recent appearance on The Social Academic where we chat about research lab websites.