The Franklin Institute Awards Class of 2024

For transformative contributions to our understanding of the physical behavior of polymers, materials made of long chains of molecules, leading to innovative product development of rubber and other soft materials. 

For applying genetics to the understanding of how plants sense and respond to light, and for inspiring new strategies for utilizing plants to combat climate change.

For innovative methods to create novel materials one molecular layer at a time, and for applying these materials to areas ranging from drug delivery to energy storage.

For his bold vision to catalog every living organism using a small piece of DNA—a DNA barcode—which allows scientists to rapidly discover new species and assess biodiversity, and which provides everyone with a means to explore biodiversity for themselves.  

For his pioneering role in the design, development, and commercialization of Ethernet, an interface for networking and file sharing between computers.

For illuminating the fundamental chemical processes that protect plants from sun damage, thereby uncovering novel approaches to increase crop yields.

For her transformational leadership of AMD, a leader in high-performance and adaptive computing and one of the fastest growing semiconductor companies in the world. As an accomplished engineer and champion for diversity and women in tech, Dr. Su’s bold vision to deliver the next generation of computing and AI solutions has led to AMD becoming one of the industry’s most influential companies.

For transforming our fundamental understanding of squishy materials ranging from gels, polymers, colloids, and emulsions to living organisms. His innovations led to the development of microdevices for applications ranging from rapid disease screening and drug discovery to cosmetic products. A master educator, he has popularized science through the physics of cooking.

For charting how children learn the sounds of languages and how their brains change and adapt in critical ways as they do so.  Her work helps us understand typical and atypical human development.