HOME ABOUT MEDAL DESIGN SELECTION PROCESS AWARDEES EVENTS GALLERY RESOURCES

Image Credits

NSF Deputy Director Cora Marrett (far left) and NSF Director Subra Suresh (far right) with the 2009 National Medal of Science laureates at the black tie dinner preceding the White House medals ceremony. The laureates are, from left to right: Amnon Yariv, Warren Washington (former chairman of the National Science Board), Stanley Prusiner, David Mumford, Mortimer Mishkin, Susan Lindquist, Marye Anne Fox, Esther Conwell, Stephen Benkovic and Yakir Aharonov.
Credit: Sandy Shaeffer for the National Science Foundation

marine holding ribbon with the national medal

At the ready, a marine holds a National Medal of Science for presentation to a laureate during the White House ceremony.
Credit: Sandy Shaeffer for the National Science Foundation

A plaster cast of the front of the National Medal of Science.
Credit: Donald DeLue, sculptor; photo from the NSF Collection

Both sides of the National Medal of Science. The front reads "National Medal of Science." On the reverse: "Awarded by the President of the United States of America."
Credit: Steven C. Buhneing, National Science Foundation

John H. Gibbons, swears in new committee members

John H. Gibbons, science advisor to President Bill Clinton, swears in new committee members (from left) Kenneth Arrow, Charles Schrieffer, Elsa Garmire, Eric Lander and Joan Steitz, on Oct. 28, 1996, at NSF.
Credit: NSF Collection

1990 Program
Credit: NSF Collection

President John F. Kennedy and Theodore von Kármán
Credit: Official White House Photo; courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library

President Lyndon B. Johnson and Igor Sikorsky
Credit: Igor I. Sikorsky Historical Archives, Inc.

President Richard M. Nixon and Barbara McClintock
Credit: Official White House Photo

President Gerald R. Ford and Chien-Shiung Wu
Credit: Official White House Photo

President Jimmy Carter and Richard Feynman
Credit: NSF Collection

President Ronald Reagan and the laureates, May 1983
Credit: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

President George H. W. Bush and H. Guyford Stever
Credit: Official White House Photo

President Bill Clinton and a group of laureates, September 1993
Credit: Official White House Photo

President George W. Bush with Charles P. Slichter
Credit: Christy Bowe-ImageCatcher News for NSF

President Barack Obama and Warren Washington
Credit: Official White House Photo

Theodore von Kármán
Credit: Official White House Photo; courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library

Marshall Nirenberg at NIH in the early 1960s.
Credit: NIH

Igor Sikorsky and his helicopters.
Credit: Igor I. Sikorsky Historical Archives, Inc.

Barbara McClintock in the lab at Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., in April 1963.
Credit: Courtesy of the Barbara McClintock Papers, American Philosophical Society

Albert Sabin administering the vaccine that saved millions from polio.
Credit: Courtesy of Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions, University of Cincinnati

Linus Pauling holding a scientific model in October 1975.
Credit: Jose Mercado, Stanford News Service

Chien-Shiung Wu and mechanical equipment in a lab.
Credit: #2205.Wu,ChienShiungInLab; courtesy of University Archives, Columbia University in the City of New York

George Uhlenbeck and President Jimmy Carter

George Uhlenbeck accepting the Medal of Science from President Jimmy Carter.
Credit: NSF Collection

Harvard University scientist E.O. Wilson in January 2005.
Credit: Rose Lincoln, staff photographer, Harvard University News Office

Richard Feynman
Credit: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

Simon Ramo
Credit: NSF Collection

Dean Wooldridge and Simon Ramo (right) compare their pictures in a painting on the cover of TIME Magazine in 1957. Their company did systems engineering for the nation's Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) before merging with Thompson Products in 1958.
Credit: TRW Archive

Roald Hoffmann, professor emeritus at Cornell University.
Credit: Gary Hodges, Cornell University

Joan A. Steitz and President Ronald Reagan

Joan A. Steitz receiving the National Medal of Science from President Ronald Reagan.
Credit: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Joan A. Steitz
Credit: Yale University Office of Public Information

Anne Anastasi
Credit: Goucher College Library Special Collections

Anne Anastasi with Vice President George H.W. Bush and (partly hidden) President Ronald Reagan.
Credit: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Paul (Ching-Wu) Chu, former president of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Houston.
Credit: Courtesy of Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries

Stanley N. Cohen, the Kwoh-Ting Li Professor of Genetics and Professor of Medicine, Stanford University.
Credit: Jose Mercado, Stanford News Service

Mildred S. Dresselhaus holding a model of a carbon nanotube.
Credit: Ed Quinn

Mildred S. Dresselhaus
Credit: Georgia Litwack

John D. Roberts
Credit: NSF Collection

John Roberts with his students at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech).
Credit: Caltech

H. Guyford Stever in 1972.
Credit: NSF Collection

Molecular biologist and science advocate Maxine F. Singer.
Credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Maxine Singer Papers

Astronomer Vera Rubin in 1974, with her "measuring engine" used to examine photographic plates.
Credit: Courtesy of Carnegie Institution of Washington

George Whitesides, University Professor at Harvard University in June 2004.
Credit: Stephanie Mitchell, staff photographer, Harvard University News Office

George Whitesides, blowing bubbles in 1999, with then-NSF Director Rita Colwell (far right).
Credit: Christy Bowe

William Julius Wilson, the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University in October 2008.
Credit: Stephanie Mitchell, staff photographer, Harvard University News Office

Karen K. Uhlenbeck in Berkeley, Calif., in 1979.
Credit: George M. Bergman, University of California, Berkeley

Edward Witten receiving the National Medal of Science from President George W. Bush.
Credit: NSF Collection

Jan D. Achenbach with President George W. Bush.
Credit: Ryan K. Morris, National Science and Technology Medals Foundation

Peter B. Dervan
Credit: Lance Hayashida, Caltech

Fay Ajzenberg-Selove with President George W. Bush.
Credit: Christy Bowe-ImageCatcher News for the National Science Foundation

Mostafa A. El-Sayed
Credit: Georgia Institute of Technology

Mostafa A. El-Sayed at the 2007 National Medal of Science White House ceremony.
Credit: Christy Bowe-ImageCatcher News for the National Science Foundation

Charles P. Slichter
Credit: L. Brian Stauffer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Francis S. Collins with President Barack Obama at the National Medal of Science awards ceremony at the White House in October 2009.
Credit: Ryan K Morris, National Science & Technology Medals Foundation

Warren M. Washington, an internationally recognized expert on atmospheric science and climate research.
Credit: UCAR

Jacqueline Barton with her husband, Peter Dervan, who is also a Medal of Science awardee.
Credit: Sandy Schaeffer for the National Science Foundation

California Institute of Technology (CalTech) chemistry and chemical engineering professor Jacqueline K. Barton.
Credit: Lance Hayashida, Caltech

Peter Stang, distinguished professor of chemistry at the University of Utah.
Credit: Lawrence Boye, University of Utah

Richard A. Tapia after receiving a 2010 National Medal of Science.
Credit: Sandy Schaeffer for the National Science Foundation

Table full of National Medals
Credit: Sandy Schaeffer for the National Science Foundation

NSF Laureate Richard
Feynman his daughter Michelle, wife Gweneth and son Carl

The 1979 National Medal of Science reception in the Jefferson Room of the State Department. Pictured left to right are NSF Laureate Richard Feynman his daughter Michelle, wife Gweneth and son Carl.
Credit: NSF Collection

NMS Laureate Simon Ramo and his wife Virginia with an unidentified guest

The 1979 National Medal of Science reception in the Jefferson Room of the State Department. Pictured are NMS Laureate Simon Ramo and his wife Virginia with an unidentified guest.
Credit: NSF Collection

President Ronald Reagan shakes hands with Anne Anastasi during the ceremony to present the National medal of Science in the Rose Garden of the White House.
Credit: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Vice President Al Gore with 1994 National Medal of Science awardees Robert Merton, George S. Hammond, Frank Press, Thomas Elsner, John Cocke, Elizabeth Neufeld, Albert Overhauser and Ray Clough. The awards ceremony was held at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium on Dec. 19, 1994.
Credit: NSF Collection

Pictured left to right are Cathleen Morawetz, Anne Peterson, Marta Cehelsky, Grace
Broecker and Vera Rubin.

National Medal of Science breakfast reception, July 26, 1996, at the National Science Foundation. Pictured left to right are Cathleen Morawetz (NMS committee member and 1998 NMS Laureate), Anne Peterson (NSF deputy director), Marta Cehelsky (National Science Board executive officer), Grace Broecker (wife of 1996 NMS Laureate Wallace S. Broecker) and Vera Rubin (NMS committee member and 1993 NMS Laureate).
Credit: NSF Collection

U.S. Marine band playing in the White House

“The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band plays in the White House foyer during the 1999 National Medal of Science and Technology Awards ceremony (March 2000).
Credit: © Christy Bowe

people gathered for the awards reception and dinner

The 1999 National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology (“and Innovation” was added in 2007) awards reception and dinner at the International Trade Center, Washington, D.C., March 13, 2000.
Credit: © Christy Bowe

reception with NMS Laureates and students

The 1999 National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology awards reception and dinner at the International Trade Center, Washington, D.C., March 13, 2000. Pictured are NMS Laureates, students from Benjamin Banneker Academic High School and NSF Director Rita Colwell.
Front row, L-R: Three Benjamin Banneker High School students, NSF Director Rita Colwell, student, NMS Laureate Susan Solomon, student
Second row, L-R: Two students, NMS Laureates Kenneth Stevens, Jared Diamond, and John Ross, student, NMS Laureates David Baltimore, and Leo Kadanoff
Third row, L-R: student, Felix Browder, Stuart Rice, Lynn Margulis, two students, James Cronin, Robert Solow, student, Ronal Coifman
Credit: © Christy Bowe

NMS Laureate Mostafa El-Sayed and a student at a gala

NMS Laureate Mostafa El-Sayed and a student from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology at the 2007 National Medal of Science gala held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C., Sept. 28, 2008.
Credit: Sandy Schaeffer to NSF

Berni Alder and his family at the White House

Berni Alder, a 2008 National Medal of Science Laureate, and his family at the White House, Oct. 7, 2009.
Credit: Sandy Schaeffer to NSF

Shu Chien, a 2010 National Medal of Science Laureate, and his family at the National Science and Technology Medals Foundation gala, Oct. 21, 2011.
Credit: Sandy Schaeffer to NSF

Yakir Aharonov, Stephen Benkovic, Marye Anne Fox, Susan Lindquist and David Mumford at the White House

The 2009 National Medal of Science Laureates prepare to enter the East Room of the White House to receive their medals on Nov. 17, 2010. In line are Yakir Aharonov, Stephen Benkovic, Marye Anne Fox, Susan Lindquist and David Mumford.
Credit: Sandy Schaeffer to NSF

Director Cora Marrett with NMS awardess at the National Science Foundation

NSF Deputy Director Cora Marrett (third from right) with 2010 National Medal of Science awardees Jackie Barton, Ralph Brinster, Shu Chien, Rudolf Jaenisch, Richard Tapia and Srinivasa Varadhan at the National Science Foundation, Oct. 20, 2011.
Credit: Sandy Schaeffer to NSF

President Barack Obama speaks during the 2010 National Medal of Science ceremony

President Barack Obama speaks during the 2010 National Medal of Science (NMS) award ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Oct. 20, 2011. Pictured from the left are NMS awardees Jackie Barton, Ralph Brinster, Shu Chien, Rudolf Jaenisch, Richard Tapia and Srinivasa Varadhan. To the right of the president are the 2010 National Medal of Technology and Innovation awardees.
Credit: Sandy Schaeffer to NSF

National Medal of Science 2011 awardees (left to right) Sidney Drell, Leroy Hood, Sandra Faber, Fred Hawthorne, Jim Gates, Solomon Golomb and John Goodenough at the National Science and Technology Medals Foundation gala at the Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C., Feb 1, 2013.
Credit: Sandy Schaeffer to NSF

Image descriptions and credits
Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations presented in this material are only those of the presenter grantee/researcher, author, or agency employee; and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.