The $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, presented by the Lemelson-MIT Program (endowed in 1994 by Jerome H. Lemelson, and administered through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is awarded yearly to inventors from the United States for outstanding achievement. The winner receives $500,000, making it the largest cash prize for invention in the U.S.

From 1995 through 2006, the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award and the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize were also presented along with the Lemelson-MIT prize. In 2007 the Lifetime Achievement award was replaced with the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability. Also introduced in 2007 were two additional $30,000 student prizes to be awarded at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

List of winners

2008

• Joseph DeSimone (Lemelson-MIT Prize)
• Martin Fisher (Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability)
• Timothy Lu (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)
• Martin Schubert (Lemelson-Rensselaer Prize)
• Patrick Walsh (Lemelson-Illinois Student Prize)

2007

• Timothy Swager (Lemelson-MIT Prize)
• Lee Lynd (Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability)
• Nathan Ball (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)
• Brian Schulkin (Lemelson-Rensselaer Student Prize)
• Michael Callahan (Lemelson-Illinois Student Prize)

2006

• James Fergason (Lemelson-MIT Prize) for his liquid crystal display innovations.
• Sidney Pestka (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Carl Dietrich (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)

2005

• Elwood "Woody" Norris (Lemelson-MIT Prize) for his invention of a hypersonic sound system, which allows sound to be focused with laser-like precision.
• Robert Dennard (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
• David Berry (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)

2004

• Nick Holonyak, Jr. (Lemelson-MIT Prize)
• Edith Flanigen (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Saul Griffith (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)

2003

• Leroy Hood (Lemelson-MIT Prize) for his invention of four devices that have helped unlock the human genome, including the automated DNA sequencer.
• William Murphy, Jr (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
• James McLurkin (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)10-min. video about him on NOVA scienceNOW

2002

• Dean Kamen (Lemelson-MIT Prize) for his invention of the Segway and of an infusion pump for diabetics.
• Ruth R. Benerito (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Andrew Heafitz (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)
• Kavita Shukla (Lemelson-MIT Invention Apprentice)

2001

• Raymond Kurzweil (Lemelson-MIT Prize])
• Raymond Damadian (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for his work in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
• Brian Hubert (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)
• Jordan Sand (Lemelson-MIT Invention Apprentice)

2000

• Thomas Fogarty (Lemelson-MIT Prize)
• Al Gross (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for his invention of the first walkie-talkie, CB radio, the telephone pager, and the cordless telephone.
• Amy Smith (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)
• Charles Johnson (Lemelson-MIT Invention Apprentice)
• Michael Lim, Jalal Khan, and Thomas Murphy (Lemelson-MIT Student Team Prize, one time award)

1999

• Carver Mead (Lemelson-MIT Prize)
• Stephanie Kwolek (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for her work on liquid-crystalline polymers and the development of the armored fabric Kevlar.
• Daniel DiLorenzo (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)
• Krysta Morlan (Lemelson-MIT Invention Apprentice)

1998

• Robert Langer (Lemelson-MIT Prize)
• Jacob Rabinow (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for the first disc-shaped magnetic storage media for computers, the magnetic particle clutch, the first straight-line phonograph, the first self-regulating clock, and a "reading machine" which was the first to use the "best match" principle.
• Akhil Madhani (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)

1997

• Douglas Engelbart (Lemelson-MIT Prize) for his invention of the computer mouse.
• Gertrude Elion (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for the following inventions:
  • 6-mercaptopurine (Purinethol), the first treatment for leukemia.
  • azathioprine (Imuran), the first immuno-suppressive agent, used for organ transplants.
  • allopurinol (Zyloprim), for gout.
  • pyrimethamine (Daraprim), for malaria.
  • trimethoprim (Septra), for meningitis, septicemia, and bacterial infections of the urinary and respiratory tracts.
  • acyclovir (Zovirax), for viral herpes.
• Nathan Kane (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)

1996

• Stanley Cohen (Co-recipient, Lemelson-MIT Prize) for the development of methods to combine and transplant genes.
• Herbert Boyer (Co-recipient, Lemelson-MIT Prize) for the development of methods to combine and transplant genes.
• Wilson Greatbatch (Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for the development of batteries for the early implantable cardiac pacemakers.
• David Levy (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)

1995

• William Bolander (Lemelson-MIT Prize)
• William Hewlett (Co-recipient, Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
• David Packard (Co-recipient, Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Thomas Massie (Lemelson-MIT Student Prize)

See also

• Lemelson-MIT Program
• Jerome H. Lemelson

External links

• Lemelson-MIT Program Official Web site
• Lemelson-MIT Program: Winner's Circle

es:Premio Lemelson-MIT