Bay Area Recipients of the National Medal of Technology

The National Medal of Technology is the highest award the President of the United States of America bestows for technological achievement. Enacted by Congress in 1980 and first awarded in 1985, the Medal is awarded annually to individuals, teams or companies for accomplishments in the innovation, development, and commercialization of technology as evidenced by the establishment of new significantly improved products, processes, or services.

California, a progressive state in many respects, has produced more winners of the Medal than any other state in the nation. Fully one-sixth of all recipients of the Medal are residents of the Bay Area, home of Silicon Valley and the firms which are continuing to shape today's "Digital Age." Drawing on such academic powerhouses as Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at San Francisco, as well as world-class scientific facilities of the Department of Energy and NASA such as Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and NASA Ames Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 14 individuals have made substantial contributions to the nation's competitiveness and dramatically improved our quality of life.

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