IRI Medal
The IRI Medal, established 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. This award is traditionally presented at the IRI Annual Conference held each spring.
One side of the medal depicts the scientist in a never-ending quest for knowledge. Imagination and mental activity are symbolized by Pegasus. The practical results of harnessing national forces to meet the needs of mankind are represented in the clouds issuing from the retort. The reverse side of the medal is an adaptation of the official seal of the Industrial Research Institute.
In 2021, the IRI Medal was awarded to Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind.
IRI Achievement Award
The IRI Achievement Award, established in 1973, is given to honor outstanding accomplishment in individual creativity and innovation that contribute broadly to the development of industry and to the benefit of society. The award is presented at the IRI Annual Conference.
Tangible recognition of the award is an original work of art symbolizing the creative nature of scientific achievement. The bronze sculpture expresses the flight of imagination in achieving technological innovation. The artist, John Blair, is a renowned sculptor whose work has been exhibited in galleries in New York City and San Francisco. His work is on permanent display at the Cavalier Gallery in Stamford, Connecticut.
The 2018 Achievement Award was awarded to Tan Le, Founder & CEO, EMOTIV.
Maurice Holland Award
The Maurice Holland Award was established in 1982 in honor of IRI’s founder, Maurice Holland. The award recognizes the best paper published in Research-Technology Management in the previous year that meets the criteria of significance to the field of R&D, technology, and innovation management; originality of new management concepts; and excellence in clarity of presentation. The award is traditionally presented at the IRI fall conference. The award is a crystal Faberge 3D replica of a World War I “Jenny,” symbolizing the spirit and dynamism of Maurice Holland, a former pilot who flew a “Jenny” during the war.
The 2020 Holland Award was awarded to Kent M. Young, Terry L. Rosenstiel and Pam Henderson for their paper, “Long-Term R&D Strategy and Planning.”
IRI Medal
Congratulations to the 2021 IRI Medalist, Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind.
Demis Hassabis is the CEO and founder of DeepMind, the world’s leading AI research company that aims to solve intelligence and advance scientific discovery for all.
Founded in 2010, DeepMind achieved breakthrough results in many challenging AI domains from StarCraft II to protein folding, and has published over 1000 research papers – including more than a dozen in Nature and Science. In 2016, DeepMind developed AlphaGo, the first program to beat a world champion at the complex game of Go, and in 2020, DeepMind won the CASP14 protein structure prediction competition with its AlphaFold program, reaching a level of accuracy considered to solve the 50-year grand challenge of protein structure prediction.
A child chess and programming prodigy, Demis coded the classic game Theme Park aged 17. After graduating from Cambridge University in computer science, he founded pioneering videogames company Elixir Studios, and completed a PhD in cognitive neuroscience at University College London. The journal Science listed his neuroscience research as one of 2007’s top ten breakthroughs. He is a five-time World Games Champion, a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2017 he featured in the Time 100 list of most influential people, and in 2018 he was awarded a CBE. In 2020 he was awarded the Dan David Prize Future Award for his work on AI.
Previous Medalists
IRI Achievement Award
Past Recipients
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)
Holland Award
Congratulations to the 2020 Holland Award Winners Kent M. Young, Terry L. Rosenstiel and Pam Henderson. Their article, “Long-Term R&D Strategy and Planning” was published in the 2020 Volume 63, Issue 2 of Research-Technology Management.
Kent M. Young – Senior Director, Technology for Global Supply Chain R&D, Sherwin-Williams
Terry L. Rosenstiel – Director, Partnerships & Innovation Pipeline, USG Corporation
Pam Henderson – Founder & CEO, NewEdge Inc.
Past 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)