# IRI Achievement Award

The IRI Achievement Award, established by the Industrial Research Institute (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.

## List of Recipients

| Year | Recipient | Achievement |
| 1974 | William F. Gresham (DuPont) | Instant Color Film |
| 1975 | William G. Pfann (Bell Labs) | Ultra-High Purity Materials |
| 1976 | Maurice R. Hilleman (Merck) | Vaccines |
| 1977 | LeGrand Van Uitert (Bell Labs) | Electronic Materials |
| 1978 | Robert H. Wentorf, Jr. (General Electric) | Synthetic Diamonds and Cubic Boron Nitride |
| 1979 | Frank B. Colton (G.D. Searle & Co.) | Oral Contraceptives |
| 1980 | Stanley D. Stookey (Corning) | Photochromic Glasses |
| 1981 | Andrew H. Bobeck (Bell Labs) | Bubble Memory |
| 1982 | Robert N. Noyce (Intel) | Silicon Integrated Circuits |
| 1983 | Herbert W. Boyer (University of California) | Recombinant DNA |
| 1984 | John W. Backus (IBM) | FORTRAN |
| 1985 | Allan S. Hay (General Electric) | Polymerization by Oxidative Coupling |
| 1986 | John E. Franz (Monsanto) | Roundup |
| 1987 | Robert D. Maurer (Corning) | Glass Fiber Wave Guides |
| 1988 | Howard G. Rogers (Polaroid) | Polyolefins |
| 1989 | Alfred Y. Cho (Bell Labs) | Molecular Beam Epitaxy |
| 1990 | Robert H. Dennard (IBM) | One-Transistor Dynamic Memory Cell |
| 1991 | Leonard S. Cutler (Hewlett-Packard) | Cesium Atomic Beam Clock |
| 1992 | Victor Mills (Procter & Gamble) | Synthetic Diamonds |
| 1993 | Richard H. Frenkiel (Bell Labs) | Cellular Telephones |
| 1994 | Marvin M. Johnson (Phillips Petroleum) | Passivating Agents for Catalytic Cracking |
| 1995 | Marinus Los (American Cyanamid) | Imidazolinone Herbicides |
| 1996 | Andrzej M. Pawlak (General Motors) | Electromechanical Devices |
| 1997 | Stephanie Kwolek (DuPont) | Liquid Crystal Polymers (Kevlar) |
| 1998 | Simon F. Campbell (Pfizer) | Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery |
| 1999 | James E. West (Bell Labs/Lucent) | Foil Electret Microphone |
| 2000 | Harry W. Coover (Eastman Chemical) | Cyanoacrylate Adhesives |
| 2001 | C. Donald Bateman (Honeywell) | GPWS and Enhanced GPWS |
| 2002 | George Beall (Corning) | Breakthrough Innovations of Glass |
| 2003 | Madan M. Bhasin (Dow Chemical) | Industrial Catalysis & Emission Reductions |
| 2004 | No recipient | No recipient |
| 2005 | Edith M. Flanigen (UOP) | Molecular Sieve Technology |
| 2006 | Dennis M. Ritchie (Bell Labs/AT&T/Lucent) | Unix Operating System |
| 2007 | Paul D. Trokhan (Procter & Gamble) | Unique Density Paper Structures |
| 2008 | Rakesh Agrawal (Purdue University) | Cryogenic Air Separation |
| 2009 | Dean L. Kamen (DEKA Research) | Technologies that enhance quality of life |
| 2010 | Ashok V. Joshi (Ceramatec) | New applications in Ionic Membranes |
| 2011 | Linden S. Blue (General Atomics) | Military strategy, energy research, and 2nd Gen. Modular Helium Reactors (MHRs) |
| 2012 | Richard Hayes (DuPont) | Polyacetal resins, modified polyesters, infrared absorbers, and gas separation membranes |
| 2013 | John J. Curro (Procter & Gamble) | Solid State Formation Technology |
| 2014 | No recipient | No recipient |
| 2015 | No recipient | No recipient |
| 2016 | Charles W. Hull (3D Systems) | Stereolithography |