Awards & Winners

IEEE Medal of Honor

IEEE Medal of Honor

The IEEE Medal of Honor is the highest recognition of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. It has been awarded since 1917, when its first recipient was Major Edwin H. Armstrong. It is given for an exceptional contribution or an extraordinary career in the IEEE fields of interest. The award consists of a gold medal, bronze replica, certificate and honorarium. The Medal of Honor may only be awarded to an individual. The medal was originally founded by the Institute of Radio Engineers as the IRE Medal of Honor. It became the IEEE Medal of Honor when IRE merged with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers to form the IEEE in 1963.
Date Established : 1917

Check all the winners of IEEE Medal of Honor presented under IEEE Medal of Honor since 1917 .


Irwin M. Jacobs

(for the ability to translate innovation into industry applications, time after time after time.)

John L. Hennessy

(\u201Cfor pioneering the RISC processor architecture and for leadership in computer engineering and higher education.\u201D)

Morris Chang

(for outstanding leadership in the semiconductor industry)

Robert Dennard

(for invention of the single transistor Dynamic Random Access Memory and for developing scaling principles for integrated circuits)

Gordon Moore

(for pioneering technical roles in integrated-circuit processing, and leadership in the development of MOS memory, the microprocessor computer and the semiconductor industry.)

Thomas Kailath

(for exceptional development of powerful algorithms in the fields of communications, computing, control and signal processing)

James D. Meindl

(\u201Cfor pioneering contributions to microelectronics, including low power, biomedical, physical limits and on-chip interconnect networks.\u201D)

James L. Flanagan

(for sustained leadership and outstanding contributions to speech technology)

Nick Holonyak

(for a career of pioneering contributions to semiconductors, including the growth of semiconductor alloys and heterojunctions, and to visible light-emitting diodes and injection lasers)

Herbert Kroemer

(for contributions to high-frequency transistors and hot-electron devices, especially heterostructure devices from heterostructure bipolar transistors to lasers, and their molecular beam epitaxy technology.)

Herwig Kogelnik

(for fundamental contributions to the science and technology of lasers and optoelectronics, and for leadership in research and development of photonics and lightwave communications systems.)

Andrew Grove

(for pioneering research in characterizing and modeling metal oxide semiconductor devices and technology, and leadership in the development of the modern semiconductor industry.)

Charles Concordia

(for outstanding contributions in the area of Power Systems Dynamics which resulted in substantial improvements in planning, operation, and security of extended power systems.)

Donald Pederson

(For creation of the SPICE Program, universally used for the computer aided design of circuits.)

George H. Heilmeier

(for discovery and initial development of electro-optic effects in liquid crystals)

Robert Metcalfe

(for exemplary and sustained leadership in the development, standardization, and commercialization of Ethernet")

Lotfi A. Zadeh

(for pioneering development of fuzzy logic and its many diverse applications.)

Alfred Y. Cho

(for seminal contributions to the development of molecular beam epitaxy)

Karl Johan Åström

(for his fundamental contributions to theory and applications of adaptive control technology.)

Amos E. Joel, Jr.

(for fundamental contributions to and leadership in telecommunications switching systems)

Leo Esaki

(for contributions to and leadership in tunneling, semiconductor superlattices, and quantum wells)

Robert G. Gallager

(for fundamental contributions to communications coding techniques)

C. Kumar N. Patel

(for fundamental contributions to quantum electronics, including the carbon dioxide laser and the spin-flip Raman laser)

Calvin Quate

(for the invention and development of the scanning acoustic microscope)

Paul Lauterbur

(for the discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging)

John Roy Whinnery

(for seminal contributions to the understanding and application of electromagnetic fields and waves to microwave, laser, and optical devices)

Norman Foster Ramsey, Jr.

(for fundamental contributions to very high accuracy time and frequency standards exemplified by the cesium atomic clock and hydrogen maser oscillator)

Nicolaas Bloembergen

(for pioneering contributions to Quantum Electronics including the invention of the three-level maser)

John Tukey

(for his contributions to the spectral analysis of random processes and the fast Fourier transform algorithm)

Sidney Darlington

(for fundamental contributions to filtering and signal processing leading to chirp radar)

William Shockley

(for the invention of the junction transistor, the analog and the junction field-effect transistor, and the theory underlying their operation.)

Richard Bellman

(for contributions to decision processes and control system theory, particularly the creation and application of dynamic programming.)

Robert Noyce

(for his contributions to the silicon integrated circuit, a cornerstone of modern electronics.)

Henry Earle Vaughan

(for his vision, technical contributions and leadership in the development of the first high-capacity pulse-code-modulation time-division telephone switching system.)

John Robinson Pierce

(for his pioneering concrete proposals and the realization of satellite communication experiments, and for contributions in theory and design of traveling wave tubes and in electron beam optics essential to this success.)

Rudolf E. Kálmán

(for pioneering modern methods in system theory, including concepts of controllability, observability, filtering, and algebraic structures)

Rudolf Kompfner

(For a major contribution to world-wide communication through the conception of the traveling wave tube embodying a new principle of amplification)

Jay Wright Forrester

(for exceptional advances in the digital computer through his invention and application of the magnetic-core random-access memory, employing coincident current addressing.)

John Bardeen

(for his profound contributions to the understanding of the conductivity of solids, to the invention of the transistor, and to the microscopic theory of superconductivity)

Dennis Gabor

(for his ingenious and exciting discovery and verification of the principles of holography)

Edward Ginzton

(for his outstanding contributions in advancing the technology of high power klystons and their application, especially to linear particle accelerators.)

Gordon Kidd Teal

(for his contributions to single crystal germanium and silicon technology and the single crystal grown junction transistor.)

Charles Hard Townes

(for significant contributions in the field of quantum electronics which have led to the maser and the laser.)

Claude Shannon

(for his development of a mathematical theory of communication which unified and significantly advanced the state of the art)

Harold Alden Wheeler

(for his analyses of the fundamental limitations on the resolution in television systems and on wideband amplifiers, and for his basic contributions to the theory and development of antennas, microwave elements, circuits, and receivers.)

George Clark Southworth, John Hays Hammond, Jr.

(for pioneering contributions to circuit theory and practice, to the radio control of missiles and to basic communication methods.)

Edward Victor Appleton

(for his distinguished pioneer work in investigating the ionosphere by means of radio waves.)

Ernst Guillemin

(for outstanding scientific and engineering achievements.)

Harry Nyquist

(for fundamental contributions to a quantitative understanding of thermal noise, data transmission and negative feedback.)

Albert Hull

(for outstanding scientific achievement and pioneering inventions and development in the field of electron tubes.)

Julius Adams Stratton

(for his inspiring leadership and outstanding contributions to the development of radio engineering as a teacher, physicist, engineer, author, and administrator.)

John Vincent Lawless Hogan

(for his contributions to the electronic field as a founder and builder of The Institute of Radio Engineers, for the long sequence of his inventions, and for his continuing activity in the development of devices and systems useful in the communications art.)

Harald T. Friis

(for his outstanding technical contributions in the expansion of the useful spectrum of radio frequencies, and for the inspiration and leadership he has given to young engineers)

William Littell Everitt

(for his distinguished career as author, educator and scientist; for his contributions in establishing electronics and communications as a major branch of electrical engineering; for his unselfish service to his country; for his leadership in the affairs of The Institute of Radio Engineers)

John Milton Miller

(for his pioneering contributions to our basic knowledge of electron tube theory, of radio instruments and measurements, and of crystal controlled oscillators)

Walter Ransom Gail Baker

(for his outstanding direction of scientific and engineering projects; for his statesmanship in reconciling conflicting viewpoints and obtaining cooperative effort; and for his service to the Institute)

Vladimir K. Zworykin

(for his outstanding contributions to the concept and development of electronic apparatus basic to modern television, and his scientific achievements that led to fundamental advances in the application of electronics to communications, to industry and to national security)

Frederick Terman

(for his many contributions to the radio and electronic industry as teacher, author, scientist and administrator)

Ralph Bown

(for his extensive contributions to the field of radio and for his leadership in Institute affairs)

Lawrence C. F. Horle

(for his contributions to the radio industry in standardization work, both in peace and war, particularly in the field of electron tubes, and for his guidance of a multiplicity of technical committees into effective action)

Ralph Hartley

(for his oscillator and information proportionality law)

Harold Beverage

(in recognition of his achievements in radio research and invention, of his practical applications of engineering developments that greatly extended and increased the efficiency of domestic and world-wide radio communications and of his devotion to the affairs of the Institute of Radio Engineers)

Haraden Pratt

(in recognition of his engineering contributions to the development of radio, of his work in the extension of communication facilities to distant lands, and of his constructive leadership in Institute affairs)

William Wilson

(for his achievements in the development of modern electronics, including its application to radiotelephony and for his contributions to the welfare and work of the Institute)

Albert H. Taylor

(for contributions to radio communication as an engineer and organizer, including pioneering work in the practical application of piezoelectric control to radio transmitters, early recognition and investigation of skip distances and other high-frequency wave-propagation problems, and many years of service to the government of the United States as an engineering executive of outstanding ability in directing the Radio Division of the Naval Research Laboratory)

Alfred Norton Goldsmith

(for his contributions to radio research, engineering, and commercial development, his leadership in standardization, and his unceasing devotion to the establishment and upbuilding of the Institute and its proceedings)

Lloyd Espenschied

(for his accomplishments as an engineer, as an inventor, as a pioneer in the development of radio telephony, and for his effective contributions to the progress of international radio coordination)

Albert G. Lee

(for his accomplishments in promoting international radio services and in fostering advances in the art and science of radio communication)

John Howard Dellinger

(for his contributions to the development of radio measurements and standards, his researches and discoveries of the relation between radio wave propagation and other natural phenomena, and his leadership in international conferences contributing to the world wide cooperation in telecommunications)

Melville Eastham

(for his pioneer work in the field of radio measurements, his constructive influence on laboratory practice in communication engineering, and his unfailing support of the aims and ideals of the Institute)

George Ashley Campbell

(for his contributions to the theory of electrical network)

Balthasar van der Pol

(for his fundamental studies and contributions in the field of circuit theory and electromagnetic wave propagation phenomena)

Stanford Caldwell Hooper

(for the orderly planning and systematic organization of radio communication in the Government Service with which he is associated, and the concomitant and resulting advances in the development of radio equipment and procedure)

John Ambrose Fleming

(for the conspicuous part he played in introducing physical and engineering principles into the radio art)

Arthur E. Kennelly

(for his studies of radio propagation phenomena and his contributions to the theory and measurement methods in the alternating current circuit field which now have extensive radio application)

Gustave-Auguste Ferrié

(for his pioneer work in the building of radio communication in France and in the world, his long continued leadership in the communication field, and his outstanding contributions to the organisation of international cooperation in radio)

George Washington Pierce

(in recognition of his contributions to the theory and applications of crystal detectors, piezoelectric crystals, and magnetostriction devices)

Jonathan Zenneck

(for his contribution to original researches in radio circuit performance and to the scientific and educational contributions to the literature of the pioneer radio art)

Louis Winslow Austin

(for his pioneer work in the quantitative measurement and correlation of factors involved in radio wave transmission)

Greenleaf Whittier Pickard

(for his contributions as to crystal detectors, coil antennas, wave propagation and atmospheric disturbances)

Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin

(in recognition of his fundamental contributions in the field of electrical tuning and the rectification of alternating currents used for signalling purposes)

John Stone Stone

(for distinguished service in radio communication)

Lee de Forest

(in recognition for his invention of the three-electrode amplifier and his other contributions to radio)

Ernst Alexanderson

(for his contributions to global radio communication)