President Joe Biden awarded the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at the White House Tuesday to recognize and honor a number of leading American innovators who have made exemplary contributions to the well-being of the United States.
Both medals are the nation's highest awards in their respective fields, recognizing outstanding discoveries and advancements people have contributed to things like biology, computer sciences, education, and engineering, among others.
"Those who earn these awards embody the promise of America by pushing the boundaries on what is possible," the White House said in a statement. "These trailblazers have harnessed the power of science and technology to tackle challenging problems and deliver innovative solutions for Americans, and for communities around the world."
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President Biden compared their achievements to the likes of Marie Curie, a pioneering physicist and chemist who is best known for her groundbreaking research on radioactivity that earned her two Nobel Prizes and helped develop the field of nuclear physics.
"With this year's recipients, outstanding may be an understatement," President Biden said. "They're extraordinary ... expanding our understanding of everything from the depths of the human eye to the depths of the universe. And they have paved the way for a generation of other scientists and innovators to pursue their own discoveries, to unlock our nation's full potential."
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This year's list of 19 recipients includes people who have made historic advancements in everything from delivering clean drinking water and fuel-efficient heating to low-income countries, to helping develop new treatments for diseases like cancer, Parkinson's and addiction.
The full list of recipients can be found below:
The National Medal of Science
- Huda Akil, University of Michigan
- Barry C. Barish, California Institute of Technology
- Gebisa Ejeta, Purdue University
- Eve E. Marder, Brandeis University
- Gregory A. Petsko, Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
- Myriam Sarachik, (posthumously) The City College of New York
- Subra Suresh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University
- Shelley E. Taylor, University of California, Los Angeles
- Sheldon Weinbaum, The City College of New York
The National Medal of Technology and Innovation
- Mary-Dell Chilton, Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc.
- John M. Cioffi, Stanford University, ASSIA, Inc.
- Rory A. Cooper, University of Pittsburgh, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
- Ashok Gadgil, University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Juan E. Gilbert, University of Florida
- Charles W. Hull, 3D Systems
- Jeong H. Kim, Kiswe Mobile, Inc.
- Steven A. Rosenberg, National Cancer Institute
- Neil Gilbert Siegel, University of Southern California
- James G. Fujimoto and Eric Swanson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and David Huang, Oregon Health & Science University (team)
