Franklin Institute Awards
science and engineering award presented by the Franklin Institute (1824–)
The Franklin Institute Awards (or Benjamin Franklin Medal) is an American science and engineering award presented by the Franklin Institute, a science museum in Philadelphia. The Franklin Institute awards comprises the Benjamin Franklin Medals in seven areas of science and engineering, the Bower Awards and Prize for Achievement in Science, and the Bower Award for Business Leadership. Since 1824, the Institute has recognized "world-changing scientists, engineers, inventors, and industrialists—all of whom reflect Benjamin Franklin's spirit of curiosity, ingenuity, and innovation". Some of the noted past awardees include Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Marie Curie, Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking. Some of the Institute's 21st century awardees are Bill Gates, James P. Allison, Indra Nooyi, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Blackburn, George Church, Robert S. Langer, and Alex Gorsky.
Benjamin Franklin Medals
In 1998, the Benjamin Franklin Medals were created by reorganizing all of the endowed medals presented by The Franklin Institute at that time into a group of medals recognizing seven areas of study:
Chemistry
Computer and Cognitive Science
Earth and Environmental Science
Electrical Engineering
Life Science
Mechanical Engineering
Physics
The first Benjamin Franklin Medals were presented in 1998. Medalists are selected by a Committee on Science and the Arts (CS&A), composed of local academics and professionals from the Philadelphia area.
Bower Awards
The Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science and the Bower Award for Business Leadership are the newest awards, established by a $7.5 million bequest from Henry Bower in 1988. The annual Bower Prizes are US$250,000 each.
Benjamin Franklin NextGen Award
The Benjamin Franklin NextGen Award is presented to an early-career investigator for a transformative discovery, development, innovation, or invention in science or engineering.
“Franklin Institute Awards” enters the record as science and engineering award presented by the Franklin Institute (1824–). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Franklin, Institute and Awards can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q817496. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1824, 1998 and 1988.
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