The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the following six fields: behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and physical sciences. The Committee on the National Medal of Science under the National Science Foundation (NSF) is responsible for recommending medal candidates to the President.
The Canada Gairdner International Award is given annually by the Gairdner Foundation at a special dinner to five individuals for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a precursor to winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine; as of 2020, 98 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to prior Gairdner recipients.
The Perkin Medal is an award given annually by the Society of Chemical Industry to a scientist residing in America for an "innovation in applied chemistry resulting in outstanding commercial development." It is considered the highest honor given in the US chemical industry.
The NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal was established by NASA on September 15, 1961, when the original ESM was divided into three separate awards. Under the current guidelines, the ESAM is awarded for unusually significant scientific contribution toward achievement of aeronautical or space exploration goals. This award may be given for individual efforts that have resulted in a contribution of fundamental importance in this field, or have significantly enhanced understanding of this field.
The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award was established in 1959 in honor of a scientist who helped elevate American physics to the status of world leader in the field.
The James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials is a prize that has been awarded annually by the American Physical Society since 1975, but was only given that name following its endowment by IBM in 1999. Prior to that it was known as the International Prize for New Materials. The recipients are chosen for "Outstanding achievement in the science and application of new materials". The prize is named after James C. McGroddy, himself a winner of APS's George E. Pake Prize in 1995, and comes with a cash award of $10,000.
The William James Fellow Award is an award of the Association for Psychological Science which "honors APS Members for their lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology". The requirement is that "recipients must be APS members recognized internationally for their outstanding contributions to scientific psychology". It is named after William James. As part of APS's 25th Anniversary, the APS Board of Directors recognized a larger class of William James Fellows in 2013, identifying them as individuals who have had a profound impact on the field of psychological science over the previous quarter century.
The APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Psychology is an award of the American Psychological Association that "honors psychologists who have made distinguished theoretical or empirical contributions to basic research in psychology."
The John Price Wetherill Medal was an award of the Franklin Institute. It was established with a bequest given by the family of John Price Wetherill (1844–1906) on April 3, 1917. On June 10, 1925, the Board of Managers voted to create a silver medal, to be awarded for "discovery or invention in the physical sciences" or "new and important combinations of principles or methods already known". The legend on the first medal read: "for discovery, invention, or development in the physical sciences". The John Price Wetherill Medal was last awarded in 1997. As of 1998 all of the endowed medals previously awarded by the Franklin Institute were reorganized as the Benjamin Franklin Medals.
The Banting Medal, officially the Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement, is an annual award conferred by the American Diabetes Association (ADA), which is the highest award of ADA. Inaugurated in 1941, the prize is given in memory of Sir Frederick Banting, a key discoverer of insulin and its therapeutic use.