The Lemelson-MIT Program awards several prizes yearly to inventors in the United States. The largest is the Lemelson–MIT Prize which was endowed in 1994 by Jerome H. Lemelson, funded by the Lemelson Foundation, and is administered through the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The winner receives $500,000, making it the largest cash prize for invention in the U.S.
The $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation (previously named the Award for Sustainability) was last awarded in 2013. The Award for Global Innovation replaced the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award, which was awarded from 1995-2006. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognized outstanding individuals whose pioneering spirit and inventiveness throughout their careers improved society and inspired others.
The Lemelson-MIT Program also awards invention prizes for college students, called the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize.
2016
Ramesh Raskar (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
2015
Jay Whitacre (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
2014
Sangeeta N. Bhatia (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
2013
Angela Belcher (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
Rebecca Richards-Kortum and Maria Oden (Lemelson–MIT Award for Global Innovation)
2012
Stephen Quake (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
(Scientist, Inventor, Entrepreneur, Professor of Biophysics and Genomics at Stanford University)
Ashok Gadgil (Lemelson–MIT Award for Global Innovation)
2011
John A. Rogers (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
(Professor, Physical Chemist, and Materials Scientist at Northwestern University)
Elizabeth Hausler (Lemelson–MIT Award for Sustainability)
2010
Carolyn Bertozzi (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
BP Agrawal (Lemelson–MIT Award for Sustainability)
2009
Chad Mirkin (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Medicine, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology and Center for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly at Northwestern University
Joel Selanikio (Lemelson–MIT Award for Sustainability)
CEO and co-Founder, Magpi, and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Georgetown University Hospital
2008
Joseph DeSimone (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
Martin Fisher (Lemelson–MIT Award for Sustainability)
2007
Timothy M. Swager (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
Lee Lynd (Lemelson–MIT Award for Sustainability)
2006
James Fergason (Lemelson–MIT Prize) for his liquid crystal display innovations.
Sidney Pestka (Lemelson–MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
2005
Elwood "Woody" Norris (Lemelson–MIT Prize) for his invention of a hypersonic sound system, which allows sound to be focused with laser-like precision.
Robert Dennard (Lemelson–MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
2004
Nick Holonyak, Jr. (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
(John Bardeen Endowed Chair Emeritus in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Edith M. Flanigen (Lemelson–MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
2003
Leroy Hood (Lemelson–MIT Prize) for his invention of four devices that have helped unlock the human genome, including the automated DNA sequencer.
William P. Murphy Jr. (Lemelson–MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
2002
Dean Kamen (Lemelson–MIT Prize) for his invention of the Segway and of an infusion pump for diabetics.
Ruth R. Benerito (Lemelson–MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
2001
Raymond Kurzweil (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
(Author, Computer scientist, Inventor and Futurist at Google)
Raymond Damadian (Lemelson–MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for his work in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
2000
Thomas Fogarty (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
Al Gross (Lemelson–MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for his invention of the first walkie-talkie, CB radio, the telephone pager, and the cordless telephone.
1999
Carver Mead (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
Stephanie Kwolek (Lemelson–MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for her work on liquid-crystalline polymers and the development of the armored fabric Kevlar.
1998
Robert Langer (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
(David H. Koch Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Jacob Rabinow (Lemelson–MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for the first disc-shaped magnetic storage media for computers, the magnetic particle clutch, the first straight-line phonograph, the first self-regulating clock, and a "reading machine" which was the first to use the "best match" principle.
1997
Douglas Engelbart (Lemelson–MIT Prize) (computer and Internet pioneer) for his invention of the computer mouse.
Gertrude Elion (Lemelson–MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for the following inventions:
6-mercaptopurine (Purinethol), the first treatment for leukemia.
azathioprine (Imuran), the first immuno-suppressive agent, used for organ transplants.
allopurinol (Zyloprim), for gout.
pyrimethamine (Daraprim), for malaria.
trimethoprim (Septra), for meningitis, septicemia, and bacterial infections of the urinary and respiratory tracts.
acyclovir (Zovirax), for viral herpes.
1996
Stanley Norman Cohen (Co-recipient, Lemelson–MIT Prize) for the development of methods to combine and transplant genes.
Herbert Boyer (Co-recipient, Lemelson–MIT Prize) for the development of methods to combine and transplant genes.
Wilson Greatbatch (Lemelson–MIT Lifetime Achievement Award) for the development of batteries for the early implantable cardiac pacemakers.
1995
William Bolander (Lemelson–MIT Prize)
William Hewlett (Co-recipient, Lemelson–MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
David Packard (Co-recipient, Lemelson–MIT Lifetime Achievement Award)
