The IEEE Edison Medal is presented by the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

(IEEE) "for a career of meritorious achievement in electrical science, electrical engineering, or the electrical arts." It is the oldest medal in this field of engineering. The award consists of a gold medal, bronze replica, small gold replica, certificate, and honorarium. The medal may only be awarded to a new leap/breakthrough in the technological area of science.

Background

The Edison Medal, named after the inventor and entrepreneur

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

, was created on 11 February 1904 by a group of Edison's friends and associates. Four years later the

American Institute of Electrical Engineers The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) was a United States-based organization of electrical engineers that existed from 1884 through 1962. On January 1, 1963, it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) to form the Insti ...

(AIEE) entered into an agreement with the group to present the medal as its highest award. The first medal was presented in 1909 to

Elihu Thomson Elihu Thomson (March 29, 1853 – March 13, 1937) was an English-born American engineer and inventor who was instrumental in the founding of major electrical companies in the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Early life He was bor ...

. Other recipients of the Edison Medal include

George Westinghouse George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age ...

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and T ...

Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla ( ; ,"Tesla"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 1856 – 7 January 1943 ...

, Michael I. Pupin, Robert A. Millikan (Nobel Prize 1923), and

Vannevar Bush Vannevar Bush ( ; March 11, 1890 – June 28, 1974) was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, who during World War II headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), through which almost all warti ...

. A complete and authoritative list is published by the IEEE online. After the merger of AIEE and the

Institute of Radio Engineers The Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) was a professional organization which existed from 1912 until December 31, 1962. On January 1, 1963, it merged with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) to form the Institute of Electrical ...

(IRE), in 1963, to form the IEEE, it was decided that IRE's

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of val ...

would be presented as IEEE's highest award, while the Edison Medal would become IEEE's principal medal. Eleven persons with an exceptional career in electrical engineering received both the IEEE Edison Medal and the

IEEE Medal of Honor The IEEE Medal of Honor is the highest recognition of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). It has been awarded since 1917, when its first recipient was Major Edwin H. Armstrong. It is given for an exceptional contributi ...

, namely

Edwin Howard Armstrong Edwin Howard Armstrong (December 18, 1890 – February 1, 1954) was an American electrical engineer and inventor, who developed FM (frequency modulation) radio and the superheterodyne receiver system. He held 42 patents and received numerous awa ...

, Ernst Alexanderson, Mihajlo Pupin, Arthur E. Kennelly, Vladimir K. Zworykin, John R. Pierce,

Sidney Darlington Sidney Darlington (July 18, 1906 – October 31, 1997) was an American electrical engineer and inventor of a transistor configuration in 1953, the Darlington pair. He advanced the state of network theory, developing the insertion-loss synth ...

, James L. Flanagan, Nick Holonyak, Robert H. Dennard, Dave Forney, and

Kees Schouhamer Immink Kornelis Antonie "Kees" Schouhamer Immink (born 18 December 1946) is a Dutch scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur, who pioneered and advanced the era of digital audio, video, and data recording, including popular digital media such as Compact D ...

Recipients

SourceList of IEEE Edison Medal Recipients
/ref> * 1909:

* 1910: Frank J. Sprague * 1911:

* 1912: William Stanley, Jr. * 1913: Charles F. Brush * 1914:

* 1915: No Award * 1916:

Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla ( ; ,"Tesla"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 1856 – 7 January 1943 ...

* 1917: John J. Carty * 1918:

Benjamin G. Lamme Benjamin Garver Lamme (January 12, 1864 – July 8, 1924) was an American electrical engineer and chief engineer at Westinghouse, where he was responsible for the design of electrical power machines. Lamme created an efficient induction motor fr ...

* 1919: William Le Roy Emmet * 1920: Mihajlo I. Pupin * 1921: Cummings C. Chesney * 1922: Robert A. Millikan * 1923: John W. Lieb * 1924: John White Howell * 1925: Harris J. Ryan * 1926: No Award * 1927: William D. Coolidge * 1928: Frank B. Jewett * 1929: Charles F. Scott * 1930: Frank Conrad * 1931: Edwin W. Rice * 1932: Bancroft Gherardi, Jr. * 1933: Arthur E. Kennelly * 1934:

Willis R. Whitney Willis Rodney Whitney (August 22, 1868 – January 9, 1958) was an American chemist and founder of the research laboratory of the General Electric Company. He is known as the "father of industrial research" in the United States for blending the wo ...

* 1935: Lewis B. Stillwell * 1936: Alex Dow * 1937: Gano Dunn * 1938: Dugald C. Jackson * 1939: Philip Torchio * 1940: George Ashley Campbell * 1941: John B. Whitehead * 1942: Edwin H. Armstrong * 1943:

* 1944: Ernst Alexanderson * 1945: Philip Sporn * 1946:

Lee De Forest Lee de Forest (August 26, 1873 – June 30, 1961) was an American inventor and a fundamentally important early pioneer in electronics. He invented the first electronic device for controlling current flow; the three-element " Audion" triode v ...

* 1947: Joseph Slepian * 1948: Morris E. Leeds * 1949: Karl B. McEachron * 1950:

Otto B. Blackwell Otto Bernard Blackwell (August 21, 1884 – November 21, 1970) was an American electrical engineer known for his pioneer contributions to the art of telephone transmission. He received the IEEE Edison Medal in 1950. Mr. Blackwell held about two do ...

* 1951: Charles F. Wagner * 1952: Vladimir K. Zworykin * 1953: John F. Peters * 1954: Oliver E. Buckley * 1955: Leonid A. Umansky * 1956: Comfort A. Adams * 1957: John K. Hodnette * 1958:

Charles F. Kettering Charles Franklin Kettering (August 29, 1876 – November 25, 1958) sometimes known as Charles Fredrick Kettering was an American inventor, engineer, businessman, and the holder of 186 patents. For the list of patents issued to Kettering, see, Le ...

* 1959: James F. Fairman * 1960: Harold S. Osborne * 1961: William B. Kouwenhoven * 1962: Alexander C. Monteith * 1963: John R. Pierce * 1964: No Award * 1965:

Walker Lee Cisler Walker Lee Cisler (October 8, 1897 – October 18, 1994) was a noted American engineer, business executive, and a founding member of the National Academy of Engineering. Early life Walker Lee Cisler was born on October 8, 1897, in Marietta, Oh ...

* 1966: Wilmer L. Barrow * 1967: George Harold Brown * 1968: Charles F. Avila * 1969: Hendrik Wade Bode * 1970: Howard H. Aiken * 1971: John Wistar Simpson * 1972:

William Hayward Pickering William Hayward Pickering (24 December 1910 – 15 March 2004) was a New Zealand-born aerospace engineer who headed Pasadena, California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for 22 years, retiring in 1976. He was a senior NASA luminary and pio ...

* 1973:

Bernard D. H. Tellegen Bernard D.H. Tellegen (24 June 1900 – 30 August 1990) was a Dutch electrical engineer and inventor of the pentode and the gyrator. He is also known for a theorem in circuit theory, Tellegen's theorem. He obtained a master's degree in electric ...

* 1974: Jan A. Rajchman * 1975:

* 1976:

Murray Joslin William''Compilation of American Nuclear Society standards-1977'', American Nuclear Society Murray Joslin (November 21, 1901 – July 1981) was an electrical engineer who made major contributions to nuclear power. He was born in Independence, ...

* 1977: Henri G. Busignies * 1978:

Daniel E. Noble Daniel Earl Noble (October 4, 1901 – February 16, 1980) was an American engineer, and executive vice chairman of the board of Motorola, who is known for the design and installation of the nation's first statewide two-way FM radio communicatio ...

* 1979: Albert Rose * 1980: Robert Adler * 1981: C. Chapin Cutler * 1982:

Nathan Cohn Nathan Cohn (January 2, 1907 – November 16, 1989) was an American electrical engineer best known for his work in the development of automatic control techniques for interconnected electric power systems. He worked for Leeds & Northrup for 48 ye ...

* 1983: Herman P. Schwan * 1984: Eugene I. Gordon * 1985:

John D. Kraus John Daniel Kraus (June 28, 1910 – July 18, 2004) was an American physicist known for his contributions to electromagnetics, radio astronomy, and antenna theory. His inventions included the helical antenna, the corner reflector antenna ...

* 1986: James L. Flanagan * 1987:

Robert A. Henle Robert A. Henle (1923 – January 27, 1989) was an electrical engineer, who contributed to semiconductor technology. In 1949, he received the BSEE degree from the University of Minnesota. Henle joined the IBM where he became involved in sem ...

* 1988: James Ross MacDonald * 1989:

Nick Holonyak, Jr. Nick Holonyak Jr. ( ; November 3, 1928September 18, 2022) was an American engineer and educator. He is noted particularly for his 1962 invention and first demonstration of a semiconductor laser diode that emitted visible light. This device was t ...

* 1990:

Archie W. Straiton Archie Waugh Straiton (27 August 1907 – 22 July 2000) was a physicist, who studied radio propagation. Biography He received the degrees of B.S. in E.E., M.A. in Physics, and the Ph.D. in Physics from The University of Texas at Austin in 1929, ...

* 1991: John L. Moll * 1992: George D. Forney * 1993:

James H. Pomerene James Herbert Pomerene (June 22, 1920 – December 7, 2008) was an electrical engineer and computer pioneer. Biography Pomerene was born June 22, 1920 in Yonkers, New York. His father was Joel Pomerene and mother was Elsie Bower. He receive ...

* 1994:

Leslie A. Geddes Leslie Alexander Geddes (May 24, 1921 – October 25, 2009) was an electrical engineer and physiologist. He conducted research in electromyography, cardiac output, cardiac pacing, ventricular defibrillation, and blood pressure. He discovered and ...

* 1995: Robert W. Lucky * 1996: Floyd Dunn * 1997: Esther M. Conwell * 1998:

Rolf Landauer Rolf William Landauer (February 4, 1927 – April 27, 1999) was a German-American physicist who made important contributions in diverse areas of the thermodynamics of information processing, condensed matter physics, and the conductivity of dis ...

* 1999:

* 2000: Jun-ichi Nishizawa * 2001: Robert H. Dennard * 2002: Edward E. Hammer * 2003: No Award * 2004:

Federico Capasso Federico Capasso (born 1949, Rome, Italy), a prominent applied physicist, was one of the inventors of the quantum cascade laser during his work at Bell Laboratories. He is currently on the faculty of Harvard University. He has co-authored over ...

* 2005: Peter Lawrenson * 2006: Fawwaz T. Ulaby * 2007:

Russel D. Dupuis Russell Dean Dupuis (born 9 July 1947) is an American physicist. He holds the Steve W. Chaddick Endowed Chair in Electro-Optics in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. He has made pioneering contributions to metalor ...

* 2008: Dov Frohman-Bentchkowsky * 2009: Tingye Li * 2010:

Ray Dolby Ray Milton Dolby (; January 18, 1933 – September 12, 2013) was an American engineer and inventor of the noise reduction system known as Dolby NR. He helped develop the video tape recorder while at Ampex and was the founder of Dolby Labo ...

* 2011: Isamu Akasaki * 2012:

Michael Francis Tompsett Michael Tompsett (born 1939) is a British-born physicist, engineer, and inventor, and the founder director of the US software company TheraManager. He is a former researcher at the English Electric Valve Company, who later moved to Bell Labs in th ...

* 2013: * 2014: Ralph Baer * 2015:

James Spilker James Julius Spilker Jr. (August 4, 1933 – September 24, 2019) was an American engineer and a consulting professor in the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department at Stanford University. He was one of the principal architects of the Global Posit ...

* 2016: Robert W. Brodersen * 2017: M. George Craford * 2018:

Eli Yablonovitch Eli Yablonovitch (born 15 December 1946) is an American physicist and engineer who, along with Sajeev John founded the field of photonic crystals in 1987.M.Kapoor (2013Electromagnetic Band Gap Structures page 58 He and his team were the first t ...

* 2019: Ursula Keller * 2020: Frede Blaabjerg * 2021: * 2022:

Alan Bovik Alan Conrad Bovik (born June 25, 1958) is an American engineer, vision scientist, and educator. He is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin), where he holds the Cockrell Family Regents Endowed Chair in the Cockrell School o ...

* 2023:

References

External links

IEEE Edison Medal page at IEEE

Complete List of Edison Medal Recipients

IEEE Edison Medal Nomination Form

New York Times on the Edison Medal

IEEE Edison Medal page at IEEE Global History Network
{{List of IEEE awards Edison Medal Thomas Edison Academic awards Awards established in 1904 1904 establishments in the United States

Background

Recipients

See also

References

External links