IRI Awards

The Maurice Holland Award is presented each year by the Innovation Research Interchange (IRI) to honor the most outstanding paper published in the previous year’s volume of RTM. Named for IRI’s founder, the Holland Award is a bronze replica of a “Jenny”, the model of airplane Maurice Holland flew during his service in World War I. The award was first presented in 1982 by Maurice Holland’s son. The Holland Award is presented to the winning paper’s authors at IRI’s Member Summit, held each year in the fall. The recipient is determined by RTM’s Board of Editors.

Holland Award Crystal

Maurice Holland Award Recipients

D. Bruce Merrifield (1982) Warren R. Stumpe (1983) George E. Manners, Jr., Joseph A. Steger, Thomas W. Zimmerer (1984) Robert A. Frosch (1985) Richard N. Foster, Alan M. Kantrow, Lawrence H. Linden, Roger L. Whiteley (1986) Harry W. Coover (1987) Roland W. Schmitt (1988) Lester C. Krogh, Julianne H. Prager, David P. Sorensen, John D. Tomlinson (1989) Albert C. Perrino, James W. Tipping (1990) Robert G. Cooper (1991) Walter L. Robb (1992) Graham R. Mitchell (1993) C. K. Prahalad (1994) Robert G. Cooper (1995) Mark R. Gallon and Harold M. Stillman (1996) Deb Chatterji (1997) Sheldon A. Buckler (1998) John Seely Brown (1999) William C. Herbein, Robert C. Morris, and Gregory R. Smith (2000) Ian C. MacMillan and Rita Gunther McGrath (2001) Marc H. Meyer and Paul C. Mugge (2002) Robin A. Karol, Ross C. Loeser, and Richard H. Tait (2003) Jeffrey T. Glass, Ingrid M. Ensing, and Gerardine DeSanctis (2004) Jay Paap and Ralph Katz (2005) Miles P. Drake, Nabil Y. Sakkab, and Ronald Jonash (2007) Raymond R. Cosner, E. Jefferson Hynds, Alan R. Fusfeld, Carl V. Loweth, Charles Scouten, and Richard Albright (2008) Paul B. Germeraad and Ronald P. Taylor (2009) Seongkeun Jang, Yongki Yoon, Inseong Lee, and Jinwoo Kim (2010) William Banholzer (2011) Bilal Kaafarani and Jane Edison Stevenson (2012) Peter Toft, Bill Crandall, and Paul Henderson (2013) Ray O. Johnson and John D. Evans (2014) Abhijit Ganguly and James Euchner (2015) Anita Friis Sommer, Christian Hedegaard, Iskra Dukovska-Popovska, and Kenn Steger-Jensen (2016) Emily B.Kennedy and Thomas A. Marting (2017), Andrew Harrison (2018), Robert Cooper and Anita Friis Sommer (2019); Sihem Ben Mahmoud-Jouini, Didier Boulet, and Sebastian Fixson (2020); Pam Henderson, Terry Rosenstiel, and Kent Young (2021); Kah-hin Chai, James Nebus, Annapoornima S. Subramanian (2022); Dirk J Primus (2023)

The IRI Medal, established by the Innovation Research Interchange (IRI) in 1946, recognizes and honors leaders of technology for their outstanding accomplishments in technological innovation which contribute broadly to the development of industry and to the benefit of society. One side of the medal depicts a scientist peering into a microscope as a symbol of the never-ending quest for innovation; a pegasus running in the background as a symbol of imagination; and clouds issuing from a retort revealing the practical results of humanity’s ability to harness natural forces to meet its needs. The reverse side of the medal is an adaptation of the official seal of the Institute. This award is traditionally presented each spring at the IRI Annual Meeting alongside the IRI Achievement Award.

IRI medal

Previous IRI Medalists (Legacy Award)

Willis Rodney Whitney (1946) Charles Allen Thomas (1947) Garnes Slayter (1948) Vannevar Bush (1949) Frank Baldwin Jewett (1950) Randolph Thomas Major (1951) Roy Chester Newton (1952) Eger Vaughan Murphree (1953) Mervin Joe Kelly ( 1954) Ernest Henry Volwiler (1955) Victor Conquest (1956) Clifford Fred Rassweiler (1957) Elmer William Engstrom (1958) Frank Koch Schoenfeld (1959) Augustus Braun Kinzel (1960) Max Tishler (1961) Chauncey Guy Suits (1962) James Brown Fisk (1963) Ray Harold Boundy (1964) Edwin Herbert Land (1965) Paul Lawrence Salzberg (1966) Emanual Ruben Piore (1967) John Hans Dessauer (1968) Patrick Eugene Haggerty (1969) William Oliver Baker (1970) Henri Busignies (1971) Peter Carl Goldmark (1972) William Earl Shoupp (1973) Robert William Cairns (1974) James Hillier (1975) Hendrik B.G. Casimir (1976) John J. Burns (1977) Malcolm E. Pruitt (1978) Arthur M. Bueche (1979) Lewis H. Sarett (1981) Wm. Houston Armistead (1981) N. Bruce Hannay (1982) Edward E. David Jr. (1983) Harry W. Coover (1984) Ralph E. Gomory (1985) George E. Pake (1986) Ian M. Ross (1987) Abraham B. Cohen (1988) Roland W. Schmitt (1989) Edward M. Scolnick (1990) Mary L. Good (1991) John S. Mayo (1992) George H. Heilmeier (1993) Walter L. Robb (1994) John J. Wise (1995) Robert A. Frosch (1996) Donald E. Elson (1997) Arno A. Penzias (1998) John Seely Brown (1999) Gordon F. Brunner (2000) Phillip Needleman (2001) Charles W. Deneka (2002) Lewis S. Edelheit (2003) John W. Miley (2004) Paul M. Horn (2005) David O. Swain (2006) Nabil Y. Sakkab (2007) Ralph Snyderman (2008) Norman R. Augustine (2009) Nicholas M. Donofrio (2010) Uma Chowdhry (2011) F. Emil Jacobs (2012) Robert S. Langer (2013) George M. Whitesides (2013) Joseph DeSimone (2014) Subra Suresh (2015) Peter H. Diamandis (2016) Vinton G. Cerf (2016) Henry Chesbrough (2017) Joichi Ito (2017) Yann LeCun (2018)
Leroy Hood (2019), David Wineland (2020), Demis Hassabis (2021)

The IRI Achievement Award, established by the Innovation research Interchange  (IRI) in 1973, is awarded “to honor outstanding accomplishment in individual creativity and innovation that contributes broadly to the development of industry and to the benefit of society.”The recipient is first nominated by an IRI member organization for his or her invention, innovation, or process improvement, and then voted on by a nine-member Awards Committee, led by the immediate past-chairman of IRI’s Board of Directors.

The bronze sculpture known as the IRI Achievement Award represents the flight of innovation. The artist who designed the sculpture is John Blair. This award is presented each spring during IRI’s Annual Meeting and is one of the highest honors awarded by the organization.

Achievement Award Bird

IRI Achievement Award Past Recipients (Legacy Award)

William F. Gresham (1974) William G. Pfann (1975) Maurice R. Hilleman (1976) LeGrand Van Uitert (1977) Robert H. Wentoff, Jr. (1978) Frank B. Colton (1979) Stanley D. Stookey (1980) Andrew H. Bobeck (1981) Robert N. Noyce (1982) Herbert W. Boyer (1983) John W. Backus (1984) Allan S. Hay (1985) John E. Franz (1986) Robert D. Maurer (1987) Howard G. Rogers (1988) Alfred Yi Cho (1989) Robert H. Dennard (1990) Leonard S. Cutler (1991) Victor Mills (1992) Richard H. Frenkiel (1993) Marvin M. Johnson (1994) Marinus Los (1995) Andrzej M. Pawlak (1996) Stephanie L. Kwolek (1997) Simon F. Campbell (1998) James E. West (1999) Harry W. Coover (2000) C. Don Bateman (2001) George H. Beall (2002) Madan M. Bhasin (2003) Edith M. Flanigan (2004) Dennis M. Richie ( 2005) Paul D. Trokhan ( 2006) Rakesh Agrawal (2007) Dean L. Kamen (2008) Ashok J. Joshi (2009) Linden Blue (2010) Richard Hayes (2011) John J. Curro (2012) Charles “Chuck” Hull (2015), Tan Le (2018)