The Franklin Institute Awards

Save the Date!

2025 Franklin Institute Awards Week: April 28 to May 2
2025 Franklin Institute Awards Ceremony and Dinner: May 1

Since 1824, The Franklin Institute of Philadelphia has honored the legacy of Benjamin Franklin by presenting awards for outstanding achievements in science, engineering, and industry.

As the oldest comprehensive science and technology awards program in the United States, The Franklin Institute Awards Program has recognized more than 2,000 of the most pioneering scientists, engineers, inventors, and innovators from across the globe.

Its history documents the course of human discovery and advancement through the past two centuries—from the diesel engine to the Mars rover, from the typewriter to the cell phone, and from x-ray technology to genome editing. Previous laureates include Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Pierre and Marie Curie, Max Planck, Orville Wright, Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble, Frank Lloyd Wright, Ruth Patrick, Jacques Cousteau, Stephen Hawking, Martin Rees, Gordon Moore, Shuji Nakamura, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Blackburn, Bill Gates, Jim West and Gerhard Sessler, Cornelia Bargmann, John Goodenough, Jim Allison, and Frances Arnold.

The Franklin Institute Awards presents the Benjamin Franklin Medals, the Benjamin Franklin NextGen Award, the Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science, and the Bower Award for Business Leadership.
 

Franklin Institute Awards Ceremony 2023

Franklin Institute Awards Ceremony & Dinner

Save the date for next year’s Awards Ceremony & Dinner: Thursday, May 1, 2025.

 

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Sponsorship & Tickets

Benjamin Franklin Memorial statue with dramatic dark blue lighting

Call for Nominations

The Franklin Institute is currently accepting nominations for the Benjamin Franklin Medals, the Benjamin Franklin NextGen Award, the Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science, and the Bower Award for Business Leadership.

 

 

Marie Curie | ca. 1900 | Tekniska Museet, Stockholm

Case Files

A Unique Repository in the History of Science and Technology. As the documentary record of The Franklin Institute Awards program, the Case Files are filled with stories of scientific enterprise dating back to 1824, when the Institute was founded to train artisans and mechanics in the fundamentals of science.

2024 Franklin Institute Awards

Celebrating its 200th year, The Franklin Institute Awards paid tribute to our namesake and America’s first citizen scientist, Benjamin Franklin, by honoring the greatest minds in science, engineering, and industry during our Bicentennial Awards Week from April 15-19, 2024. Through their boundless creativity and passion for discovery, the 2024 laureates have seen the previously invisible, pushed the limits of nature’s toolkit, and dreamed up solutions to global challenges—advancing health, sustainability, and human connection. Beyond their remarkable achievements, they are mentors and role models, guiding the next generation of trailblazers and creating a better future for us all.

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2024 Awards Laureates

Learn more about the 2024 Laureates here.

Watch the 2024 Ceremony

Awards Videos

View each year’s Franklin Institute Awards Ceremony and learn about the laureates and their incredible work. Videos are presented in collections by year. 

2024  2023  2022  2021  2019  2018  2017  2016  2015

Looking for a specific laureate or subject? Check out the laureate search. Video profiles can be found on each laureate’s bio page.

Laureate Search