Lemelson-MIT Prize

The Lemelson Foundation awards several prizes yearly to inventors in United States. The largest is the Lemelson-MIT Prize which was endowed in 1994 by Jerome H. Lemelson, and is administered through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The winner receives $500,000, making it the largest cash prize for invention in the U.S.

From 1995 through 2006, the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award and the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize were also presented along with the Lemelson-MIT prize. In 2007 the Lifetime Achievement award was replaced with the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability. In 2007 the Lemelson Foundation also introduced two additional $30,000 student prizes to be awarded at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A student prize for the California Institute of Technology was added in 2009.

List of winners

2009

• Chad Mirkin (Lemelson-MIT Prize)
• Joel Selanikio (Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability)
• Geoffrey von Maltzahn (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)
• Yuehua Yu (Lemelson-Rensselaer Student Prize)
• John Wright (Lemelson-Illinois Student Prize)
• Ophir Vermesh (Lemelson-CalTech Student Prize)

2008

• Joseph DeSimone (Lemelson-MIT Prize)
• Martin Fisher (Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability)
• Timothy Lu (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)
• Martin Schubert (Lemelson-Rensselaer Prize)
• Patrick Walsh (Lemelson-Illinois Student Prize)

2007

• Timothy Swager (Lemelson-MIT Prize)
• Lee Lynd (Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability)
• Nathan Ball (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)
• Brian Schulkin (Lemelson-Rensselaer Student Prize)
• Michael Callahan (Lemelson-Illinois Student Prize)

2006

• James Fergason (Lemelson-MIT Prize) for his liquid crystal display innovations.
• Sidney Pestka (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Carl Dietrich (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)

2005

• Elwood "Woody" Norris (Lemelson-MIT Prize) for his invention of a hypersonic sound system, which allows sound to be focused with laser-like precision.
• Robert Dennard (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
• David Berry (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)

2004

• Nick Holonyak, Jr. (Lemelson-MIT Prize)
• Edith M. Flanigen (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Saul Griffith (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)

2003

• Leroy Hood (Lemelson-MIT Prize) for his invention of four devices that have helped unlock the human genome, including the automated DNA sequencer.
• William Murphy, Jr (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
• James McLurkin (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)10-min. video about him on NOVA scienceNOW

2002

• Dean Kamen (Lemelson-MIT Prize) for his invention of the Segway and of an infusion pump for diabetics.
• Ruth R. Benerito (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Andrew Heafitz (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)
• Kavita Shukla (Lemelson-MIT Invention Apprentice)

2001

• Raymond Kurzweil (Lemelson-MIT Prize])
• Raymond Damadian (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for his work in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
• Brian Hubert (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)
• Jordan Sand (Lemelson-MIT Invention Apprentice)

2000

• Thomas Fogarty (Lemelson-MIT Prize)
• Al Gross (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for his invention of the first walkie-talkie, CB radio, the telephone pager, and the cordless telephone.
• Amy Smith (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)
• Charles Johnson (Lemelson-MIT Invention Apprentice)
• Michael Lim, Jalal Khan, and Thomas Murphy (Lemelson-MIT Student Team Prize, one time award)

1999

• Carver Mead (Lemelson-MIT Prize)
• Stephanie Kwolek (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for her work on liquid-crystalline polymers and the development of the armored fabric Kevlar.
• Daniel DiLorenzo (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)
• Krysta Morlan (Lemelson-MIT Invention Apprentice)

1998

• Robert Langer (Lemelson-MIT Prize)
• Jacob Rabinow (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for the first disc-shaped magnetic storage media for computers, the magnetic particle clutch, the first straight-line phonograph, the first self-regulating clock, and a "reading machine" which was the first to use the "best match" principle.
• Akhil Madhani (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)

1997

• Douglas Engelbart (Lemelson-MIT Prize) for his invention of the computer mouse.
• Gertrude Elion (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for the following inventions:
  • 6-mercaptopurine (Purinethol), the first treatment for leukemia.
  • azathioprine (Imuran), the first immuno-suppressive agent, used for organ transplants.
  • allopurinol (Zyloprim), for gout.
  • pyrimethamine (Daraprim), for malaria.
  • trimethoprim (Septra), for meningitis, septicemia, and bacterial infections of the urinary and respiratory tracts.
  • acyclovir (Zovirax), for viral herpes.
• Nathan Kane (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)

1996

• Stanley Cohen (Co-recipient, Lemelson-MIT Prize) for the development of methods to combine and transplant genes.
• Herbert Boyer (Co-recipient, Lemelson-MIT Prize) for the development of methods to combine and transplant genes.
• Wilson Greatbatch (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for the development of batteries for the early implantable cardiac pacemakers.
• David Levy (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)

1995

• William Bolander (Lemelson-MIT Prize)
• William Hewlett (Co-recipient, Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
• David Packard (Co-recipient, Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Thomas Massie (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)

See also

• Lemelson Foundation
• Jerome H. Lemelson

External links

• Lemelson-MIT Program Official Web site
• Lemelson-MIT Program: Winner's Circle