The Milka Bliznakov Prize, established in 1998, is named in honor of the founder of the International Archive of Women in Architecture, architect and Virginia Tech Professor Emerita Milka Bliznakov. The prize is conferred in recognition of research that advances knowledge of women's contributions to architecture and related design fields, and was created to encourage the use and growth of the IAWA. The prize winner is determined in a two stage process. In Stage One, applicants register their proposal, which outlines the work they plan to complete within the coming year. Stage Two occurs the following year, when applicants submit their completed projects. The winner of the prize is selected from among these projects.

In 2011, for the 11th Annual Prize, the prize committee altered the guidelines to include the stipulation that a portion of the research for the project must use IAWA collections and renamed the award The Milka Bliznakov Research Prize. The awarding of the prize still occurs in a two stage process. In Stage One, applicants submit their proposal, which outlines the research they plan to conduct at the IAWA repository housed in Virginia Tech's Special Collections, a proposed schedule for residency to include a open presentation on their research, and a description of the product they plan to produce (e.g. research paper, book, visual or physical original work). The winner of the prize is selected from among these proposals. In stage two, the Prize winner conducts their research at Virginia Tech's Special Collections library and submits their project for inclusion in the IAWA collections by December of that year.

Milka Bliznakov Award and Research Prize Winners

2001, Claire Bonney, The Work and Life of Adrienne Gorska.

2002, Elizabeth Birmingham, Searching for Marion Mahony: Gender, Erasure, and the Discourse of Architectural Studies.

2003, Barbara Nadel,Security Design: Achieving Transparency in Civic Architecture and Ozlem Erkarslan, Turkish Women Architects in the Late Ottoman and Early Republican Era 1908-1960.

2004, Dorrita Hannah, un-housing performance: The Heart of PQ and Janet Stoyel, Sonicloth.

2005, Carmen Alonso Espegel, Heroines of the Space, Isabel Bauer, Architekturstudentinnen der Weimarer Republik, and Bobbye Tigerman, 'I Am Not a Decorator' Florence Knoll, the Knoll Planning Unit, and the Making of the Modern Office.

2005, Milka Bliznakov Honorarium, Joseph Chuo Wang.

2006, Milka Bliznakov Prize, Commendation, Against All Odds: MIT's Pioneering Women of Landscape Architecture by Eran Ben-Joseph, Holly D. Ben-Joseph and Anne C. Dodge.

2007, No prize awarded.

2008, Martha Alonso, Sonia Bevilacqua, and Graciela Brandariz, Odilia Suárez: The Exemplary Trajectory of an Architect and Urbanist in Latin America and Despina Stratigakos, A Woman’s Berlin

2008, Milka Bliznakov Prize, Commendation, Lori Brown, feminist practices [exhibition].

2009, Patrick Lee Lucan, Sarah Hunter Kelly: Designing the House of Good Taste.

2010, Inge Schaefer Horton, Early Women Architects of the San Francisco Bay Area .

2011, Lindsay Nencheck, Organizing Voices: Examining the 1974 Women in Architecture Symposium at Washington University in St. Louis.

2012, Andrea J. Merrett, Feminism in American Architecture: Organizing: 1972-1975 .

2013, Robert Holton, Natalie de Blois - Her role and contribution to the design of three pivotal SOM projects completed in New York City between 1950-1960: the Lever House, the Pepsi-Cola building and the Union Carbide.

2014, Meredith Sattler, Early Technological Innovation in the Systems Approach to Environmental Design: Situating Beverly Willis and Associates’ CARLA platform [Computerized Approach to Residential Land Analysis] within the developmental trajectory of Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

2015, Claire Bonney Brüllman, The Work and Life of Adrienne Gorska and Sarah Rafson, CARY (Chicks in Architecture Refuse to Yield).

2016, Ines Moisset, Women Architects on the Web and Tanja Poppelreuter, Refugee and émigré female architects before 1940.

2017, Rixt Hoekstra, Regarding De Stijl through a Gender Perspective: The Work and Life of Han Schröder (1918 -1992) and Kirat Kaur Pandher (Student Prize), Indian Architects: A Proposal for Directed Expansion.

2019, Anna Sokolina, Life to Architecture: Milka Bliznakov Academic Papers and Records of Women in Russian Architecture at the IAWA.