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The Leonardo da Vinci Medal

Da Vinci Medal

Updated 19 April 2024

SHOT invites members to nominate candidates for the Leonardo da Vinci Medal. To put forward a person’s name for consideration for the award, please upload a letter of nomination, describing the person’s outstanding contributions to the history of technology.

Please note that there is no standard format for a letter of nomination. Current members of SHOT’s Executive Council cannot be considered as a Da Vinci medalist. The nominations will be reviewed by the Da Vinci Medal Committee. Please note that nominated candidates will be considered for the Leonardo Da Vinci Medal in the next three years (so candidates nominated in 2024 will be considered for the award in 2024, 2025 and 2026).

It is not possible anymore to nominate candidates for the 2024 Leonardo Da Vinci Medal.

Leonardo da Vinci Medal

The highest recognition from the Society for the History of Technology is the Leonardo da Vinci Medal, presented to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the history of technology, through research, teaching, publications, service to the Society, and other activities. Andras Beck (formerly of the Hungarian Academy of Arts) designed the medal, the face of which shows Leonardo’s head modeled after the artist’s self-portrait. The reverse design shows (in the words of the sculptor) “the basic sources of energy: water, wind, and fire.” The prize consists of a medal and a certificate.

SHOT invites members to nominate candidates for the Leonardo da Vinci Medal. To put forward a person’s name for consideration for the award, please upload a letter of nomination, describing the person’s outstanding contributions to the history of technology, to SHOT’s online submission system. Please note that nominations will be considered for the 2023 Leonardo da Vinci Medal.

Please note that there is no standard format for a letter of nomination. Current members of SHOT’s Executive Council cannot be considered as a Da Vinci medalist.

The nominations will be reviewed by the Da Vinci Medal Committee. This committee comprises all SHOT prize committee chairs. It is chaired by the immediate SHOT past-President for two consecutive years.

For more information, please contact Jan Korsten, SHOT Secretary, [email protected].

Alex Roland receives de 2023 Da Vinci medal from SHOT President Gabrielle Hecht (Photo SHOT)

2024 da Vinci Medal Committee

Arwen Mohun (Chair) Lino Camprubí
Peter S. Collopy Maria-Paula Diogo
Mats Fridlund Xiaochang Li
Nina Lerman David Lucsko
Teasel Muir-Harmony Thomas S. Mullaney
Timothy H. Stoneman Chair Dibner Committee
Chair Ferguson Committee Chair Race and Histories of Technology Prize Committee

Recipients of the da Vinci Medal

2023 Alex Roland
2022 Donald MacKenzie
2021 Suzanne Moon
2020 Maria Paula Diogo
2020 Arthur P. Molella
2019 Francesca Bray
2018 Joy Parr
2017 Arnold Pacey
2016 Ronald R. Kline
2015 Johan Schot
2014 Pamela O. Long
2013 Rosalind H. Williams
2012 Wiebe Bijker
2011 John M. Staudenmaier
2010 Svante Lindqvist
2009 Susan J. Douglas
2008 Joel Tarr
2007 David A. Hounshell
2006 Eric H. Robinson
2005 David Nye
2004 David Landes
2003 Bart Hacker
2002 Leo Marx
2001 Robert C. Post
2000 Silvio A. Bedini
1999 no award
1998 Walter G. Vincenti
1997 Ruth Schwartz Cowan
1996 Nathan Rosenberg
1995 Bruce Sinclair
1994 Merritt Roe Smith
1993 W. David Lewis
1992 Otto Mayr
1991 Carroll W. Pursell
1990 Edwin Layton, Jr.
1989 R. Angus Buchanan
1988 Sidney M. Edelstein
1987 Robert P. Multhauf
1986 Hugh G. J. Aitken
1985 Thomas P. Hughes
1984 Brooke Hindle
1983 Louis C. Hunter
1982 no award
1981 Donald S. L. Cardwell
1980 John B. Rae
1979 John U. Nef
1978 Torsten Althin
1977 Eugene S. Ferguson
1976 Derek J. deSolla Price
1975 Friedrick Klemm
1974 Bern Dibner
1973 Carl Condit
1972 Ladislo Reti
1971 A. G. Drachmann
1970 Bertrand Gille
1969 Lewis Mumford
1968 Joseph Needham
1967 Melvin Kranzberg
1966 Cyril Stanley Smith
1965 Maurice Daumas
1964 Lynn T. White, Jr.
1963 Abbott Payson Usher
1962 R. J. Forbes