Since 1886, the National Academy of Sciences has honored outstanding achievement in the physical, biological, and social sciences through its awards program.

Announcements

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• Call for Nominations! 
  We are now accepting nominations for the 2020 Awards! Awards will be presented in a variety of fields including neuroscience, food and agriculture sciences, astronomy, sustainability, and many more. Nominations will be accepted online through Monday, October 7, 2019. 

• Age Revision for the Troland Research Award!
  Starting with this nomination period, the Troland Research Award age limit has been revised to "early-career researchers, preferably 45 years of age or younger."

Featured Award

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Scheduled for presentation in 2020 in sustainability, the NAS Award for the Industrial Application of Science is awarded for original scientific work of intrinsic scientific importance and with significant, beneficial applications in industry. Established by the IBM Corporation in honor of Ralph E. Gomory, the prize carries a $25,000 prize. 

Robert H. Dennard received the 2017 NAS Award for the Industrial Application of Science. Dennard’s contributions to microelectronics heavily influenced the world of modern computing. In 1966 he invented one-transistor Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), which replaced magnetic-core memory and became the RAM of virtually every computer and communication device used in industry today, ranging from transportation to telecommunications to medicine. Each basic DRAM cell uses a single transistor and a tiny capacitor to store a bit of data (stated as 0 or 1) in a large memory array within an integrated circuit chip, along with decoding circuits needed to write and read data to and from the chip. Dennard is the sole inventor of the fundamental DRAM patent, just one of his many patents. Read more about Dennard's work»