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Year
2021
Subject
Chemistry
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Princeton University | Princeton, New Jersey
Citation
With Michele Parrinello, for inventing an efficient computational method that maps the interactions of large numbers of atoms in motion using quantum mechanics, an approach now used to describe and design diverse chemicals and materials, as well as to understand biological systems.
Year
2012
Subject
Life Science
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Howard Hughes Medical Institute |
University of Wisconsin-Madison |
Madison, Wisconsin
Citation
For proposing and demonstrating that the diversity and multiplicity of animal life is largely due to the different ways that the same genes are regulated rather than to mutation of the genes themselves.
Year
2018
Subject
Computer and Cognitive Science
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Google Inc.│ Reston, Virginia
Citation
With Robert E. Kahn, for enabling the Internet by developing TCP/IP, the set of methods that allows effective communication between millions of computer networks.
Year
2016
Subject
Mechanical Engineering
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
University of California, San Diego │ La Jolla California
Citation
For contributions to the understanding of the physics of blood flow and for applying this knowledge to better diagnose cardiovascular disease.
Year
2002
Subject
Life Science
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Research Triangle Park | North Carolina
Citation
For her key discoveries and wide-ranging contributions in the development of the Agrobacterium tumefaciens Ti plasmid as a major vector system for plant genetic engineering.
Year
2022
Subject
Earth and Environmental Science
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Massachusetts Institute of Technology │ Cambridge, Massachusetts
Citation
For her leading role in the discovery of Prochlorococcus, a marine microorganism that is the most abundant photosynthetic organism known, and for her pioneering studies exploring the role of Prochlorococcus and other ocean microbes in global chemical cycles and Earth’s climate.
Year
1999
Subject
Computer and Cognitive Science
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Cambridge, Massachusetts
Citation
For his contributions to the world of linguistics and their effects on computer science, and insight into human thought processes.
Year
2024
Subject
Life Science
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies │ La Jolla, California
Citation
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.
Year
2010
Subject
Physics
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics |
Garching, Germany
Citation
With David Wineland and Peter Zoller, for their theoretical proposal and experimental realization of the first device that performs elementary computer-logic operations using the quantum properties of individual atoms.
Year
2006
Subject
Civil Engineering
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
University of California, Berkeley | Berkeley, California
Citation
For revolutionizing engineering and scientific computation and engineering design methods through his formulation and development of the finite element method, and for his innovative leadership in applying the method to the field of earthquake engineering with special emphasis on the seismic performance of dams.
Year
2000
Subject
Computer and Cognitive Science
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights | Yorktown Heights, New York
Citation
For the development of reduced instruction set computing (RISC), which has led to a revolution in computer architecture.
Year
2017
Subject
Physics
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory │Berkeley, California
Citation
For making possible atomic-scale calculations of the properties of materials so detailed that new materials and their mechanical, thermal, electrical, and optical properties can be predicted in agreement with experiments.
Year
2000
Subject
Physics
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
University of Colorado, Boulder | Boulder, Colorado
Citation
With Carl Wieman and Wolfgang Ketterle, for their epoch-making experimental confirmation of the 1925 prediction by Satyendra Bose and Albert Einstein, who claimed on theoretical grounds that a dilute gas can condense into a large quantum-mechanical system and display properties that are usually found only on an atomic or molecular scale.
Year
2013
Subject
Physics
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Harvard University |
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Citation
For his many fundamental contributions to the development of the field of molecular astrophysics, which led to a better understanding of interstellar space, including the giant molecular clouds that are the birthplaces of stars and planets.
Year
2025
Subject
Computer and Cognitive Science
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
NVIDIA │ Santa Clara, California │ Stanford University │ Stanford, California
Citation
For his contributions to the design of affordable, high-performance, parallel computer systems, a core technology that has enabled the rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence and other applications that require massive amounts of computation.
Year
2000
Subject
Mechanical Engineering
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Danby Powell Maglev Technology Corporation
Citation
With James Powell, for the invention of a novel repulsive magnetically-levitated train system using superconducting magnets and subsequent work in the field.
Year
2006
Subject
Chemistry
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Columbia University | New York, New York
Citation
For his achievements in synthetic organic chemistry, particularly for the development of methods for preparing complex substances found in nature, and their emerging applications in the field of cancer treatment.
Year
2022
Subject
Electrical Engineering
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
University of Southern California│ Los Angeles, California
Citation
With Russell D. Dupuis, for pioneering the technology that provides the materials quality and ultra-precision required for many device components central to modern life, including LEDs, transistors, lasers, and high-performance solar cells.
Year
2011
Subject
Electrical Engineering
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Duke University |
Durham, North Carolina
Citation
For fundamental discoveries in the field of compact representations of data, leading to efficient image compression as used in digital photography.
Notes:
- "Franklin" Medals are not the same as "Benjamin Franklin" Medals. The Benjamin Franklin Medal was initiated in 1998 to represent the combined legacies of several historic medals, including the Franklin Medal.
- The Scott Medal is awarded by the City of Philadelphia. Prior to 1920, the Institute's Committee on Science and the Arts selected the medalists and the Scott Medals were presented on Awards Day at The Franklin Institute.
- For more information about The Franklin Institute Awards program, contact the Awards Program Director at awards@fi.edu.