Past Winners
In 1970, Carnegie Mellon awarded the first Dickson Prize in Science to Richard Bellman, a then-professor of medicine, mathematics and electrical engineering at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Since then, renowned biologists, chemists, engineers, computer scientists,geneticists, physicists and the like have been honored with the Dickson Prize.
Recent Recipients
2023
Dr. Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz
Senior Group Leader and Head of 4D Cellular Physiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus
2022
Dr. Richard Aslin
Senior Research Scientiest, Yale University's Haskins Laboratories and Child Study Center
2021
Geoffrey Hinton
Emeritus Professor, University of Toronto
2020
Lucy Shapiro
Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor of Developmental Biology, Stanford University
2019
Geraldine Richmond
Presidential Chair in Science and Professor of Chemistry, University of Oregon
2018
Emery N. Brown
Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and Computational Neuroscience at MIT, Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anaesthesia, Harvard Medical School and anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital
2017
Jennifer A. Doudna
Professor of Molecular & Cell Biology and Chemistry and HHMI Investigator at University of California, Berkeley
2016
Chad A. Mirkin
George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry and Director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology, Northwestern University
2015
Judea Pearl
Chancellor’s Professor of Computer Science and Statistics, University of California, Los Angeles
More Past Recipients
Information listed reflects the recipient at the time of the award.
2000s
2014 - 2015
Joseph M. DeSimone
Departments of Chemistry and Pharmacology, Institute for Advanced Materials, Institute for Nanomedicine, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University
2013 - 2014
Karl Deisseroth
D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University
2012 - 2013
François M.M. Morel
Albert G. Blanke Professor of Geosciences, Princeton University
2011 - 2012
Marvin L. Cohen
University Professor, University of California, Berkeley
2010 - 2011
David A. Tirrell
Ross McCollum-William H. Corcoran Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology
2009 - 2010
Saul Perlmutter
Professor of Physics, University of California, Berkeley; Senior Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California
2008 - 2009
Richard M. Karp
University Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley; Research Scientist International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley, California
2007 - 2008
Jean J.M. Fréchet
Henry Rapoport Chair of Organic Chemistry and Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley; Director of the Organic and Macromolecular Facility for the Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
2006 - 2007
Jared M. Diamond
Professor of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles
2005 - 2006
David Haussler
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator; Director, Center for Biomedical Science and Engineering
University of California, Santa Cruz; Scientific Co-Director, The California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research; Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
2004 - 2005
George M. Whitesides
Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor, Harvard University
2003 - 2004
Marc W. Kirschner
Head, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School
2002 - 2003
Robert Langer
The Kenneth J. Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2001 - 2002
Carver Mead
The Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science (Emeritus), California Institute of Technology
2000 - 2001
Alexander Pines
The Glenn T. Seaborg Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley
1990s
Howard Raiffa
Professor of Managerial Economics (Emeritus), Harvard University
1998 - 1999
Peter Shor
Principal Research Scientist, AT&T Shannon Laboratory, Florham Park, New Jersey
1997 - 1998
Walter Alvarez
Professor of Geology and Geophysics, University of California, Berkeley
1996 - 1997
John P. Hirth
Battelle Distinguished Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University
1995 - 1996
Dr. Leland Hartwell
Senior Advisor, Scientific Affairs, Molecular Medicine Division, Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center of Seattle; Professor of Genetics, University of Washington
1994 - 1995
Raymond Kurzweil
Kurzweil Technologies
1993 - 1994
Vera Rubin
Carnegie Institution of Washington
1992 - 1993
Paul C. Lauterbur
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1991 - 1992
David Botstein
Stanford University
1990 - 1991
F. Sherwood Rowland
University of California, Irvine
1980s
Richard E. Dickerson
University of California, Los Angeles
1988 - 1989
Joan Steitz
Yale School of Medicine
1987 - 1988
Mitchell Feigenbaum
Rockefeller University
1986 - 1987
Benjamin Widom
Department of Chemistry, Cornell University
1985 - 1986
Norman Davidson
Departments of Biology and Chemistry, California Institute of Technology
1983 - 1984
Edward Fredkin
Department of Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1982 - 1983
Harden M. McConnell
Department of Chemistry, Stanford University
1980 - 1981
John Werner Cahn
Center for Materials Science, U.S. Department of Commerce
1970s
Seymour Benzer
Professor of Biology, California Institute of Technology
1977 - 1978
John H. Sinfelt
Research Scientist, Exxon
1974 - 1975
David M. Geiger
Geiger Berger Associates
1973 - 1974
Elias J. Corey
Department of Chemistry, Harvard University
1972 - 1973
Francis L. Ver Snyder
Materials Engineering and Research Laboratory, Pratt and Whitney Aircraft
1971 - 1972
George E. Palade
Department of Cell Biology, Rockefeller University
Keith R. Porter
Chairman, Department of Cellular, Molecular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado
1970 - 1971
Richard Bellman
Professor of Medicine, Electrical Engineering and Mathematics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles