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Year
2022
Subject
Life Science
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania │ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Citation
With Katalin Karikó, for fundamental research enabling the use of mRNA as a safe, effective, and life-saving vaccine platform for the prevention of infectious disease, including COVID-19.
Year
2024
Subject
Computer and Cognitive Science
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
The University of British Columbia │ Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Citation
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.
Year
2010
Subject
Electrical Engineering
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Johns Hopkins University |
Baltimore, Maryland
Citation
With Gerhard M. Sessler, for the invention and development of the first practical electret microphone, which can inexpensively be made small enough to fit into cellular phones, digital cameras, and other portable devices.
Year
2007
Subject
Life Science
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University | New York, New York
Citation
For her vital role in the discovery of the gene responsible for Huntington's disease. By leading combined efforts in human molecular genetics and neurosciences, Dr. Wexler established a model now used to investigate the genetic basis of inherited diseases.
Year
2009
Subject
Chemistry
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Harvard University | Cambridge, Massachusetts
Citation
For his pioneering chemical research in the field of molecular self-assembly and his invention of rapid, innovative techniques for the inexpensive fabrication of ultra-small devices for practical use.
Year
2000
Subject
Physics
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
University of Colorado, Boulder | Boulder, Colorado
Citation
With Eric Cornell 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
2010
Subject
Physics
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
National Institute of Standards and Technology |
Boulder, Colorado
Citation
With J. Ignacio Cirac 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
Earth and Environmental Science
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
The Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore, Maryland
Citation
With Luna B. Leopold, for advancing our understanding of how natural and human activities influence landscapes, especially for the first comprehensive explanation of why rivers have different forms and how floodplains develop. Their contributions form the basis of modern water resource management and environmental assessment.
Year
2019
Subject
Electrical Engineering
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
University of California, Berkeley │ Berkeley, California
Citation
For widely-used scientific improvements to radio- and light-based technologies in wireless communications and solar energy applications.
Year
2009
Subject
Electrical Engineering
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
University of California, Berkeley | Berkeley, California
Citation
For his invention and development of the field of fuzzy logic, a mathematical system that captures aspects of the ambiguity of human language and thought, which has solved problems in areas such as artificial intelligence and the automated control of machines.
Year
2023
Subject
Chemistry
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Stanford University | Stanford, California
Citation
For fundamental studies of the dynamics of chemical reactions, including the development of techniques to observe molecules as they react.
Year
1998
Subject
Chemistry
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
California Institute of Technology | Pasadena, California
Citation
For his application of ultrafast lasers to probe chemical reactions contributing to the formation of a new field of research called "femtochemistry."
Year
2015
Subject
Physics
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Stanford University │ Stanford, California
Citation
With Charles Kane and Eugene Mele, for their groundbreaking theoretical contributions leading to the discovery of a new class of materials called topological insulators, and for their prediction of specific compounds exhibiting the novel properties expected of these new materials.
Year
2010
Subject
Physics
Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Affiliation
Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck | Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Austrian Academy of Sciences | Innsbruck, Austria
Citation
With J. Ignacio Cirac and David Wineland, for their theoretical proposal and experimental realization of the first device that performs elementary computer-logic operations using the quantum properties of individual atoms.
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.