Past Winners

Note: The year designates the formal award year, not always the year in which the award was presented. Information listed reflects recipient at that time.

1970   
Richard Bellman (Mathematics)   
Professor of Medicine, Electrical Engineering and Mathematics
University of Southern California, Los Angeles

1971  
George E. Palade (Cell Biology)
Department of Cell Biology
Rockefeller University

Keith R. Porter (Cell Biology)
Chairman, Department of Cellular, Molecular and Developmental Biology
University of Colorado

1972   
Francis L. Ver Snyder (Metallurgy)
Materials Engineering and Research Laboratory
Pratt and Whitney Aircraft

1973   
Elias J. Corey (Organic Chemistry)
Department of Chemistry
Harvard University

1974   
David M. Geiger (Civil Engineering)
Geiger Berger Associates

1977   
John H. Sinfelt (Chemical Engineering)
Research Scientist
Exxon

1978   
Seymour Benzer (Genetics and Molecular Biology)
Professor of Biology
California Institute of Technology

1980   
John Werner Cahn (Metallurgy)
Center for Materials Science
U.S. Department of Commerce

1982   
Harden M. McConnell (Magnetic Resonance)
Department of Chemistry
Stanford University

1983-84   
Edward Fredkin (Computer Science)
Department of Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1985   
Norman Davidson (Genetics, Biology and Chemistry)
Department of Biology and Chemistry
California Institute of Technology

1986   
Benjamin Widom (Chemical Engineering, Physics and Chemistry)
Department of Chemistry
Cornell University

1987   
Mitchell Feigenbaum (Physics)
Rockefeller University

1988   
Joan Steitz (Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry)
Yale School of Medicine

1989   
Richard E. Dickerson (Molecular Biology)
University of California, Los Angeles

1990   
F. Sherwood Rowland (Atmospheric Carbons)
University of California, Irvine

1991   
David Botstein (Genetics)
Stanford University

1992   
Paul C. Lauterbur (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

1993   
Vera Rubin (Astrophysics)
Carnegie Institution of Washington

1994   
Raymond Kurzweil (Artificial Intelligence and Kurzweil Reader)
Kurzweil Technologies

1995   
Dr. Leland Hartwell (Cell Biology)
Senior Advisor, Scientific Affairs
Molecular Medicine Division
Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center of Seattle and
Professor of Genetics
University of Washington

1996   
John P. Hirth (Structural Defects in Phase Transformations)
Battelle Distinguished Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Washington State University

1997   
Walter Alvarez (Stratigraphy and Earth History)
Professor of Geology and Geophysics
University of California, Berkeley

1998   
Peter Shor (Quantum Computing)
Principal Research Scientist
AT&T Shannon Laboratory, Florham Park, New Jersey

1999                   
Howard Raiffa (Decision Sciences)
Professor of Managerial Economics (Emeritus)
Harvard University

2000                   
Alexander Pines (Chemistry)
The Glenn T. Seaborg Professor of Chemistry
University of California, Berkeley

2001   
Carver Mead (Microelectronics and Engineering)
The Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science (Emeritus)
California Institute of Technology

2002   
Robert Langer (Chemical and Biomedical Engineering)
The Kenneth J. Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2003   
Marc W. Kirschner (Cell Biology)
Head, Department of Systems Biology
Harvard Medical School

2004   
George M. Whitesides (Materials Chemistry)
Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor
Harvard University

2005   
David Haussler (Computational Learning Theory and Bioinformatics)
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Director, Center for Biomedical Science and Engineering
University of California, Santa Cruz
Scientific Co-Director
The California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research
Professor of Biomolecular Engineering
University of California, Santa Cruz

2006  
Jared M. Diamond (Geography, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)
Professor of Geography
University of California, Los Angeles