US government awarded several tech executives with the country’s highest honours for scientific and technological achievements. President Donald Trump presented the National Medal of Science to Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, AMD CEO Lisa Su, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, while the National Medal of Technology and Innovation was awarded to Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Elon Musk shared a congratulatory message to fellow recipients on X.“Congratulations to Sergey, Jensen, Lisa, Michael and Satya!,” Musk wrote, replying to a video of the award ceremony event shared by the Official White House Rapid Response team.
White House presents science medals
The medals were presented at the Science: A New Golden Age Summit. In a official press release, the White House said “Since 1963, the President of the United States has bestowed the National Medal of Science on those deserving of special recognition for their outstanding contributions to science in service of the United States”. White the National Medal of Technology and Innovation was first awarded in 1985. It has recognized American innovators whose vision, intellect, creativity, and determination have strengthened America’s economy and improved our quality of life.“Each of these medalists has transformed their field or industry, laying the foundations for technologies we already can barely imagine living without,” said Michael Kratsios, Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “While we in government work to deliver the efforts a New Golden Age of Science will require, we know that scientific progress and technological innovation depend on the insight and character of individuals. Innovators like these six awardees are the architects of the future.”The recipients are listed below.
Recipients of the National Medal of Science
- Elon Musk – “For engineering achievements of extraordinary ambition and scale that have pushed the frontiers of space exploration, intelligent systems, communications, and beyond, renewing American technological leadership and opening a new chapter in American manufacturing.”
- Sergey Brin – “For the development of foundational algorithms for information retrieval and data processing that revolutionized how the world accesses information across science, commerce, and in the course of everyday life.”
- Jensen Huang – “For advancing the graphics processing unit into a general-purpose computing architecture through innovations in processor design and software, transforming massively parallel computation and powering breakthroughs in scientific computing and super intelligence.”
- Lisa Su – “For a lifetime of leadership in semiconductor engineering and high-performance computing through innovations in processor architecture and chiplet-based integration that powered the world’s first exascale supercomputer and opened new frontiers in computational performance.”
Recipients of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation
- Michael Dell – “For advancing a vision of widespread adoption of personal and enterprise computing; for his technical and business management skills building a worldwide technology company; and for his support for the next generation of American scientists, engineers, and technologists.”
- Satya Nadella – “For his transformative leadership of a critical American technology company, which led to its rejuvenation for a new era of cloud computing, and for his construction of the hyperscale infrastructure that enabled the training and global deployment of American super intelligence.”