John Scott Medal

{{Infobox award

| name = John Scott Award

| current_awards =

| image = JohnScottMedal.jpg

| imagesize =

| alt =

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| awarded_for =

| presenter = The Franklin Institute and the City Council of Philadelphia

| country = USA

| location =

| reward =

| year = 1816

| year2 =

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| website = https://thejohnscottaward.org/index.html

}}

John Scott Award, created in 1816 as the John Scott Legacy Medal and Premium, is presented to men and women whose inventions improved the "comfort, welfare, and happiness of human kind" in a significant way.{{cite web |url=http://www.citytrusts.com/sundry.html |title=Sundry Trusts |publisher=Board of Directors of City Trusts of Philadelphia |access-date=March 20, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321153922/http://www.citytrusts.com/sundry.html |archive-date=March 21, 2012 }} "...the John Scott Medal Fund, established in 1816...". Since 1919 the Board of Directors of City Trusts of Philadelphia{{cite web|url=http://www.citytrusts.com/ |title=Board of Directors of City Trusts |access-date=March 27, 2011}} provide this award, recommended by an advisory committee.{{cite web|url=http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/johnscottaward.html |title=The John Scott Award |publisher=John Scott Award Advisory Committee |first=E. |last=Garfield |author-link=Eugene Garfield |access-date=March 21, 2011}} Eugene Garfield is member of the Advisory Committee.{{cite journal |date=March 31, 1922 |title=John Scott Medal Fund |journal=Science |volume=55 |issue=1422 |page=344 |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science |doi=10.1126/science.55.1422.344-a |url=https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.55.1422.344.a |access-date=March 27, 2011 |url-access=subscription }}

In 1822 the first awards were given to thirteen people by the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture{{cite web|url=http://www.pspaonline.com/ |title=Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture |access-date=March 23, 2011}} entrusted by the "Corporation of the city of Philadelphia".{{cite journal |author=Benjamin Silliman |year=1830 |title=Miscellanies - Premiums for useful inventions |journal=American Journal of Science and Arts |volume=18 |issue=July |page=382 |publisher=Hezekiah Howe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_PQQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA382 |access-date=March 23, 2011 |author-link=Benjamin Silliman }}

The druggist John Scott of Edinburgh organized a $4,000 fund which, after his death in 1815 was administered by a merchant until the first award, a copper medal and "an amount not to exceed twenty dollars", was given in 1822. (At the time, $20 could buy one ox or a 12-volume encyclopedia.) Several hundred recipients have since been selected by the City Council of Philadelphia, which decides from the annual list of nominees made by the Franklin Institute.

Notable recipients

Most awards have been given for inventions in science and medicine. Notable

recipients include:

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Recent winners

class="wikitable"

! Year

! Winner

! Area of Innovation

rowspan="3" |2024

|R. Vijay Kumar

|cooperative and multi-agent robotics

Takeo Kanade

|computer vision and robotics

Daniela Rus

|distributed, networked autonomous robotic systems

rowspan="2" |2023{{cite web |title=The John Scott Award |url=https://thejohnscottaward.github.io/jsc/recent.html |website=thejohnscottaward.github.io |publisher=The John Scott Award |access-date=11 April 2024}}

|Michael E. Mann

|scientific understanding of historic climate change

Robert H. Socolow

|pioneering new concepts and creating new fields in energy and the environment

rowspan="3" |2022 {{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}

|Gary Beauchamp

|translational research on taste, smell, and flavor

Nancy Bonini

|use of Drosophila to gain insight into degenerative diseases of the brain

Barry Arkles

|Silicon-based science for medical devices and polymeric materials

rowspan="2" |2021 {{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}

|Katalin Kariko

|stable mRNA enabling gene-induced immune response

Drew Weissman

|mRNA approach to enable-induced response within the human body

rowspan="3" |2020 {{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}

|Jean Bennett

|Gene therapies for curing retinal degeneration

William DeGrado

|development of antimicrobial peptides

Michael Klein

|algorithms for computational simulation of biological systems

rowspan=3| 2019

| Emily A. Carter

reverse combustion
Charles L. Kanetopological insulators
Eugene Meletopological insulators
rowspan=2| 2018

| James West

foil electret microphone
Bjarne Stroustrupc++ computer programming language
rowspan=3| 2017

| Ruzena Bajcsy

robotics and engineering science
Warren Ewenspopulation genetics research
Masatoshi Neievolutionary theory
rowspan=4| 2016

| Emmanuelle Charpentier

rowspan=3| CRISPR-Cas genome editing
Jennifer Doudna
Feng Zhang
Carl H. Junecancer immunology
rowspan=2| 2015

| Madeleine M. Joullié

synthetic chemistry
John P. Perdewdensity functional theory
rowspan=3| 2014

| Susan Band Horwitz

cancer therapeutics
Leonard Hayflickrowspan=2| discovery of cellular senescence
and innovations in microscopy
Paul S. Moorhead
rowspan=3| 2013{{cite news|last=Vitez|first=Michael|title=3 Phila. medical men to be honored|newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=21 November 2013}}

| P. Leslie Dutton

redox reactions in biochemistry
N. Scott Adzickfetal surgery
Robert L. Brentenvironmental causes of birth defects
rowspan=3| 2012

| Paul J. Steinhardt

quasicrystals
John Q. Trojanowskirowspan=2| neurodegenerative diseases
Virginia Man-Yee Lee
rowspan=2| 2011

| David E. Kuhl

PET scans
Jenny Pickworth Gluskercrystallography
rowspan=2| 2010

| Christian J. Lambertsen

underwater diving equipment
William A. Eatonprotein aggregation and folding

See also

References

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