It is with great pleasure that we announce the winners of the very first 2023 IRI Excellence Awards and the IRI Innovation Leadership Award. These honor the outstanding achievements and contributions of IRI’s member organizations across several categories. These awards will be presented at the 2023 IRI Awards Dinner on Wednesday, May 24, at The Logan Philadelphia. Congratulations to our 2023 Award Winners!
Dr. Alexa Dembek (DuPont)
IRI Innovation Leadership Award
For her exceptional leadership and vision in driving innovation and transformation, resulting in significant contributions to her organization, industry, and society. Her work at DuPont has set the standard for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) leadership.
Michelman
IRI Excellence Award for Corporate Citizenship Award
For strong commitment to sustainable chemistry in the design of their products and technologies, and for establishing partnerships with other organizations to drive sustainable innovation.
Lam Research Corporation
IRI Excellence Award for Culture of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award
For their robust programs supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion, and for creating a workplace where all employees feel welcomed, respected, safe, and valued.
The Lubrizol Corporation
IRI Excellence Award for Digital and Technological Innovation
For the development of Q.life, a virtual testing and data analytics system that enables the company to rapidly develop and launch new products, reduce costs, and improve efficiency.
DuPont
IRI Excellence Award for Member Engagement
For demonstrating exceptional commitment to engaging with and contributing knowledge to the IRI community, and advancing the field of innovation management.
PPG Industries
IRI Excellence Award for Scientific Advancement
For the development of Copper Armor Antimicrobial (in partnership with Corning Incorporated), a breakthrough product in the paint industry and a valuable tool in reducing the spread of diseases.
IRI Innovation Leadership Award
The IRI Innovation Leadership Award recognizes individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the field of innovation through their leadership, vision and impact.
IRI Excellence Award in Corporate Citizenship
The IRI Excellence Award in Corporate Citizenship is designed to recognize recent outstanding achievement and projects that have made a meaningful impact and significant contribution to their industry and society. This award recognizes companies, organizations, and individuals who have demonstrated exceptional commitment and leadership in corporate social responsibility and community involvement.
IRI Excellence Award for Culture of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
The IRI Excellence Award for Culture of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion recognizes outstanding achievement in creating and sustaining a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The award seeks to inspire organizations and individuals to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion as a critical component of their operations and culture.
IRI Excellence Award for Digital and Technological Innovation
The IRI Excellence Award for Digital and Technological Innovation recognizes outstanding achievements in the development and application of digital and technological solutions. The award seeks to inspire innovation and encourage organizations and individuals to push the boundaries of what’s possible in their respective industries.
IRI Excellence Award for Member Engagement
The IRI Excellence Award in Member Engagement is designed to recognize member organizations that have made significant contributions to the engagement and growth of the IRI community and demonstrate a commitment to the innovation community at large.
IRI Excellence Award in Scientific Advancement
The IRI Excellence Award in Scientific Advancement is presented annually to member organizations that have demonstrated remarkable leadership and accomplishment in scientific advancements.
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
Holland Award
Kah-hin Chai – Associate Professor of Industrial Systems Engineering and Management, National University of Singapore College of Design and Engineering
James Nebus – Department Chair and Associate Professor of Strategy and International Business, Suffolk University Sawyer Business School
Annapoornima S. Subramanian – Associate Professor of Industrial Systems Engineering and Management, National University of Singapore College of Design and Engineering
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), 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)
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)