The NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (abbrv. ESAM) was established by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

on September 15, 1961, when the original ESM was divided into three separate awards. Under its guidelines, the ESAM is awarded for unusually significant scientific contribution toward achievement of aeronautical or space exploration goals. This award may be given for individual efforts that have resulted in a contribution of fundamental importance in this field, or have significantly enhanced understanding of this field.

Recipients (incomplete list)

* 1962 – Robert E. Bourdeau * 1963 – John Houbolt * 1965 – Jack N. James * 1966 – Richard Franz Joseph Arenstorf (He was awarded the medal for his contributions to the Space Navigation and the Apollo Lunar Landing Program. * 1968 – G. Mervin Ault * 1969 – Charles Berry, William F. Brown, Thomas Canning, Moustafa Chahine,

Hong-Yee Chiu Hong-Yee Chiu (; born October 1932) is a Taiwanese-American astrophysicist, at NASA for 35 years, and publisher of EHGBooks micro-publishing company. He was born in Shanghai, China. Career Chiu graduated from National Taiwan University and in 19 ...

, Clarence Cone, James Downey, Erwin Fehlberg, Richard Green, Rudolf Hanel, Webb Haymaker, Gerhard B. Heller, Harvey Hubbard, James Humphreys, Mark Kelly, James Kupperian, Dale Lumb, Wolfgang Moeckel, Paul Muller, Robert Naumann, William O'Bryant, George Pieper, Henry Plotkin, Joseph Randall, Donald Rea,

Nancy Roman Nancy Grace Roman (May 16, 1925 – December 25, 2018) was an American astronomer who made important contributions to stellar classification and motions. The first female executive at NASA, Roman served as NASA's first Chief of Astronomy throug ...

, Lee Scherer, William Sjorgen, Charles Sonett, Robert Stone, David Wark, Richard Whitcomb, Donald Wise * 1970 – William Angele, James R. Arnold, Paul Coleman, Leverett Davis, Milner Eskew, Herbert Friedman, Paul Gast, Peter Macdoran, Warren Martin, Maurice Morin, Marcia Neugebauer, Edward Perkins, Edward Smith, Conway Snyder, Nelson Spencer, Patrick Thaddeus, Robert Walker, Gerald Wasserburg * 1971 – John C. Freche * 1972 – Robert Steinbacher, Thomas C. Duxbury, Charles H. Acton, George Robert Carruthers * 1973 – William A. Fischer, Founder & Sr. Scientist, EROS Space Program; Recipient of the US Distinguished Service Award & many others. onway B. Leovy* 1974 – John A. Simpson, William Edgar Thornton August F. Witt, Carolyn L. Huntoon * 1975 – Edward Purdy Ney * 1976 – Tito T. Serafini * 1977 �
Janos K. Lanyi
* 1978 –

Elihu Boldt Elihu Aaron Boldt (15 July 1931–12 September 2008) was an American astrophysicist, who led an X-ray astronomy group at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for more than 30 years. Elihu Boldt was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on 15 July 193 ...

, Hale Bradt,

Herbert Friedman Herbert Friedman (June 21, 1916 – September 9, 2000) was an American physicist and astronomer who did research in X-ray astronomy. During his career Friedman published hundreds of scientific papers. One such example is "Ultraviolet and X Rays fr ...

, Gordon Garmire,

Herbert Gursky Herbert Gursky (May 27, 1930, Bronx, New York – December 1, 2006) was the Superintendent of the Naval Research Laboratory's Space Science Division and Chief Scientist of the E.O. Hulburt Center for Space Research. Biography Gursky's researc ...

Walter Lewin Walter Hendrik Gustav Lewin (born January 29, 1936) is a Dutch astrophysicist and retired professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lewin earned his doctorate in nuclear physics in 1965 at the Delft University of Technol ...

, Frank McDonald, Laurence Peterson, Alvin Seiff, Robert Tolson * 1979 – Milton Halem * 1980 –

Riccardo Giacconi Riccardo Giacconi ( , ; October 6, 1931 – December 9, 2018) was an Italian-American Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist who laid down the foundations of X-ray astronomy. He was a professor at the Johns Hopkins University. Biography Born in ...

(2002 Nobel Laureate in Physics) * 1981 –

Andrew Ingersoll Andrew Perry Ingersoll (born 1940) is an American physicist. He is a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology. Ingersoll was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1997. He received the lifetime ach ...

, Talivaldis Spalvins * 1982 –

Mary Helen Johnston Mary Helen Johnston (born September 17, 1945), later also Mary Helen McCay, is an American scientist and former astronaut. Working with NASA as an engineer in the 1960s and '70s, Johnston aspired to be an astronaut; she unsuccessfully applied in ...

, Jeff Cuzzi, James V. Taranik * 1983 – Joel S. Levine * 1984 – Donald B. Campbell, Fred Gillett, James R. Houck, Frank Low * 1985 –

Prem Chand Pandey Prem Chand Pandey is an Indian space scientist, planetary scientist, and academic in the fields of satellite oceanography, remote sensing, atmospheric science, the Antarctic and climate change, and also he is the founding director of the Nation ...

, SAC/

ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), overseen by the Prime Minister o ...

, NCAOR and

IIT Kharagpur The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur or IIT-KGP) is a public institute of technology, research university, and autonomous institute established by the Government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal. Founded in 1951, the in ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, Parviz Moin * 1986 – Jeff Cuzzi, Crofton B. Farmer, Frank J. Grunthaner, Taylor G. Wang * 1988 – Nitza Margarita Cintrón,

Hal A. Weaver Harold Anthony "Hal" Weaver, Jr. (born 1953) is an American astronomer, known for his research into the composition of solar system bodies including comets and Kuiper belt objects. Weaver attended Duke University as an undergraduate, and obtain ...

, Michael J. Mumma * 1989 –

Mario Molina Mario José Molina-Pasquel Henríquez (19 March 19437 October 2020) was a Mexican physical chemist. He played a pivotal role in the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole, and was a co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role ...

(1995 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry), Donald J. Kessler,

Inez Fung Inez Fung (; born April 11, 1949) is a professor of atmospheric science at the University of California, Berkeley, jointly appointed in the department of earth and planetary science and the department of environmental science, policy and managemen ...

* 1990 – Charles M. Telesco, John W. Harvey, Martin A. Pomerantz * 1991 – Khairul B. M. Q. Zaman,

John C. Mather John Cromwell Mather (born August 7, 1946) is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE) with George Smoot. This work helped cement the Big Ba ...

(2006 Nobel Laureate in Physics), Manuel D. Salas, Roy W. Spencer, John Christy * 1992 – Charles L. Bennett, John C.Brandt, Edward S. Cheng,

Donald D. Clayton Donald Delbert Clayton (March 18, 1935 – January 3, 2024) was an American astrophysicist whose most visible achievement was the prediction from nucleosynthesis theory that supernovae are intensely radioactive. That earned Clayton the NASA Exc ...

, Holland C. Ford, Edward J. Groth, Richard J. Harms, Sara E. Heap, Peter Jakobson, William H. Jefferys, Thomas Kelsall, Michael D. King, Tod R. Lauer, David S. Leckrone, F. Duccio Macchetto, Stephan S. Meyers, S. Harvey Moseley, Thomas L. Murdock, Ruth Pater, Michael J. Prather, Richard A. Shafer, Robert F. Silverberg, Wei-kuo Tao, James A. Westphal, Ray J. Weymann, Edward L. Wright, James A. DiCarlo, Nathan S. Jacobson, George Smoot (2006 Nobel Laureate in Physics) * 1993 – Rebecca A. MacKay * 1994 – Robert A. Bindschadler, Theodore E. Bunch, Emmett W. Chappelle, Malcolm M. Cohen, Dale P. Cruikshank, Hay C. Hardin, Alice K. Harding, Donald Horan, Winifred M. Huo, Isabella T. Lewis, Erick Malaret, Camden McCarl, Robert Riesse, Piers J. Sellers, Trevor C. Sorensen, Thomas A. Zang Jr. * 1995 – James L. Smialek, Maria T. Zuber, Robert D. Moser * 1996 – Kevin Zahnle,

Carolyn Shoemaker Carolyn Jean Spellmann Shoemaker (June 24, 1929 – August 13, 2021) was an American astronomer and a co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9, Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9. She discovered 32 comets (then a record for the most by an individu ...

Eugene Merle Shoemaker Eugene Merle Shoemaker (April 28, 1928 – July 18, 1997) was an American geologist. He co-discovered Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 with his wife Carolyn S. Shoemaker and David H. Levy. This comet hit Jupiter in July 1994: the impact was televise ...

* 1997 – James O. Arnold, David H. Atkinson, David H. Bailey, John E. Carlstrom, Ara Chutjian, John W. Connell, Harald M. Fischer, Everett K. Gibson Jr., William L. Grose, Marshall K. Joy, Kathie L. Thomas-Keprta, Louis J. Lanzerotti, David S. McKay, Michael J. Mumma, Hasso B. Niemann, Glenn S. Orton, Peter A. Pilewskie, Carolyn Purvis, Boris Ragent, Alvin Seiff, Lawrence Sromovsky, Ulf von Zahn, Richard N. Zare * 1998 – Narottam P. Bansal, Timothy J. Lee * 1999 – Jeff Cuzzi, Martin Weisskopf * 2000 – Hugh J. Christian Jr.,

Joan Feynman Joan Feynman (March 31, 1927 – July 21, 2020) was an American astrophysicist and space physicist. She made contributions to the study of solar wind particles and fields, sun-Earth relations, and magnetospheric physics. She was known for cre ...

, Mona J. Hagyard, Yoram J. Kaufman, Ellis E. Remsberg * 2002 – Thomas P. Charlock, Gilles Peltzer * 2003 – Philip R. Christensen, Jean O. Dickey, Geoffrey W. Marcy, Martin G. Mlynczak, Ronald L. Moore, Richard F. Mushotzky, Eric Rignot, Farid Salama, Wei-Kuo Tao * 2004 – Charles L. Bennett, Randall G. Hulet, David P. Kratz, Steven J. Ostro, Thomas L. Sever, Chris R. Webster, Yuk-ling Yung * 2005 – Ichiro Fukumori, James R. Houck, Nicholas Leventis, Steven Suess, Michael Watkins * 2006 – Michael F. A’Hearn,

David Charbonneau David Brian Charbonneau is a professor of Astronomy at Harvard University. His research focuses on the development of novel techniques for the detection and characterization of Exoplanet, exoplanets orbiting nearby, Sun-like stars. Early life ...

, Drake Deming,

Neil Gehrels Cornelis A. "Neil" Gehrels (October 3, 1952 – February 6, 2017) was an American Astrophysics, astrophysicist specializing in the field of gamma-ray astronomy. He was Chief of the Astroparticle Physics Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flig ...

, John Le Marshall, Edward C. Stone, Tod Strohmayer, Larry W. Thomason * 2007 – Scott Braun,

Donald Brownlee Donald Eugene Brownlee (born December 21, 1943) is a professor of astronomy at the University of Washington at Seattle and the principal investigator for NASA's Stardust mission. In 2000, along with his co-author Peter Ward, he co-originated th ...

, Joan Centrella, Moustafa Chahine, Mark S. Marley, Eric Rignot, Alan Title * 2008 – Anthony Del Genio, David G. Fischer, Gerald M. Heymsfield, Russell A. Howard, Ronald Kwok, Michael I. Mishchenko, Son V. Nghiem * 2009 – James E. Fesmire, Gilles Peltzer, Michael J. Mumma, Anne R. Douglass * 2010 – Peter H. Smith, William V. Boynton, Heather L. Enos, Christopher R. Shinohara * 2011 – Carl J. Grillmair, Suzanne E. Smrekar, Yuhe T. Song, Timothy J. Lee, Eric Jensen, Jason Rowe, Jeff Scargle, Cheryl A. Nickerson * 2013 – David Paige * 2014 – Joshua Coleman, Daniel Huber * 2015 – Carrie M. Anderson * 2016 – David R. Ciardi, Amy R. Winebarger, Francesco Tombesi, Hiroya Yamaguchi, Ignacy Telesman, Jason Rowe * 2017 – Sylvain Guiriec, Maria Cristina De Sanctis, Samuel Gulkis, Thomas H. Prettyman, Michele Vallisneri, Kasthuri J. Venkateswaran, Beth Lewandowski * 2018 – Susan E. Mullally, Michael B. Stenger, Adolfo Figueroa Vinas, Gordon Holman, Lazaros Oreopoulos, Richard Ray, M. Cristina De Sanctis, Walter A. Petersen, Michael Russell * 2019 – John D. Bolten, Carl R. Devore, Alex Glocer, Jonathan H. Jiang, Erin A. Kara, Fei Liu, Elizabeth A. MacDonald, Amy A. Simon, Lynn B. Wilson III, Cheol Park, Andreas Nathues * 2020 – Renee C. Weber, Zaven Arzoumanian * 2021 –

John Baross John A. Baross (born August 27, 1940) is an American marine microbiologist and professor of oceanography and astrobiology at the University of Washington who has made significant discoveries in the field of the microbial ecology of hydrothermal ve ...

, Eli Dwek, Floyd William Stecker, Xu Liu, Eleonora Troja * 2022 – Sibasish Laha, Jane Rigby, Michael McElwain, Charles Nickolos Arge, Peter Kalmus * 2023 –Hongbin Yu, Koji Mukai, Glyn Collinson, Pankaj Kumar

References

External links

List of NASA Honor Awards

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nasa Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal Awards and decorations of NASA Awards established in 1961

Recipients (incomplete list)

See also

References

External links