NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal
The NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal was established by NASA on September 15, 1961, when the original ESM was divided into three separate awards. Under its guidelines, the ESAM is awarded for unusually significant scientific contribution toward achievement of aeronautical or space exploration goals. This award may be given for individual efforts that have resulted in a contribution of fundamental importance in this field, or have significantly enhanced understanding of this field.
Recipients (incomplete list)
- 1962 – Robert E. Bourdeau
- 1963 – John Houbolt
- 1965 – Jack N. James
- 1966 – Richard Franz Joseph Arenstorf
- 1981 – Andrew Ingersoll, Talivaldis Spalvins
- 1982 – Mary Helen Johnston, Jeff Cuzzi, James V. Taranik
- 1983 – Joel S. Levine
- 1984 – Donald B. Campbell, Fred Gillett, James R. Houck, Frank Low
- 1985 – Prem Chand Pandey, SAC/ISRO, NCAOR and IIT Kharagpur, India, Parviz Moin
- 1986 – Jeff Cuzzi, Crofton B. Farmer, Frank J. Grunthaner, Taylor G. Wang
- 1988 – Nitza Margarita Cintrón, Hal A. Weaver, Michael J. Mumma
- 1989 – Mario Molina, Donald J. Kessler, Inez Fung
- 1990 – Charles M. Telesco, John W. Harvey, Martin A. Pomerantz
- 1991 – Khairul B. M. Q. Zaman, John C. Mather, Manuel D. Salas, Roy W. Spencer, John Christy
- 1992 – Charles L. Bennett, John C.Brandt, Edward S. Cheng, Donald D. Clayton, Holland C. Ford, Edward J. Groth, Richard J. Harms, Sara E. Heap, Peter Jakobson, William H. Jefferys, Thomas Kelsall, Michael D. King, Tod R. Lauer, David S. Leckrone, F. Duccio Macchetto, Stephan S. Meyers, S. Harvey Moseley, Thomas L. Murdock, Ruth Pater, Michael J. Prather, Richard A. Shafer, Robert F. Silverberg, Wei-kuo Tao, James A. Westphal, Ray J. Weymann, Edward L. Wright, James A. DiCarlo, Nathan S. Jacobson, George Smoot
- 1993 – Rebecca A. MacKay
- 1994 – Robert A. Bindschadler, Theodore E. Bunch, Emmett W. Chappelle, Malcolm M. Cohen, Dale P. Cruikshank, Hay C. Hardin, Alice K. Harding, Donald Horan, Winifred M. Huo, Isabella T. Lewis, Erick Malaret, Camden McCarl, Robert Riesse, Piers J. Sellers, Trevor C. Sorensen, Thomas A. Zang Jr.
- 1995 – James L. Smialek, Maria T. Zuber, Robert D. Moser
- 1996 – Kevin Zahnle, Carolyn Shoemaker, Eugene Merle Shoemaker
- 1997 – James O. Arnold, David H. Atkinson, David H. Bailey, John E. Carlstrom, Ara Chutjian, John W. Connell, Harald M. Fischer, Everett K. Gibson Jr., William L. Grose, Marshall K. Joy, Kathie L. Thomas-Keprta, Louis J. Lanzerotti, David S. McKay, Michael J. Mumma, Hasso B. Niemann, Glenn S. Orton, Peter A. Pilewskie, Carolyn Purvis, Boris Ragent, Alvin Seiff, Lawrence Sromovsky, Ulf von Zahn, Richard N. Zare
- 1998 – Narottam P. Bansal, Timothy J. Lee
- 1999 – Jeff Cuzzi, Martin Weisskopf
- 2000 – Hugh J. Christian Jr., Joan Feynman, Mona J. Hagyard, Yoram J. Kaufman, Ellis E. Remsberg
- 2002 – Thomas P. Charlock, Gilles Peltzer
- 2003 – Philip R. Christensen, Jean O. Dickey, Geoffrey W. Marcy, Martin G. Mlynczak, Ronald L. Moore, Richard F. Mushotzky, Eric Rignot, Farid Salama, Wei-Kuo Tao
- 2004 – Charles L. Bennett, Randall G. Hulet, David P. Kratz, Steven J. Ostro, Thomas L. Sever, Chris R. Webster, Yuk-ling Yung
- 2005 – Ichiro Fukumori, James R. Houck, Nicholas Leventis, Steven Suess, Michael Watkins
- 2006 – Michael F. A'Hearn, David Charbonneau, Drake Deming, Neil Gehrels, John Le Marshall, Edward C. Stone, Tod Strohmayer, Larry W. Thomason
- 2007 – Scott Braun, Donald Brownlee, Joan Centrella, Moustafa Chahine, Mark S. Marley, Eric Rignot, Alan Title
- 2008 – Anthony Del Genio, David G. Fischer, Gerald M. Heymsfield, Russell A. Howard, Ronald Kwok, Michael I. Mishchenko, Son V. Nghiem
- 2009 – James E. Fesmire, Gilles Peltzer, Michael J. Mumma, Anne R. Douglass
- 2010 – Peter H. Smith, William V. Boynton, Heather L. Enos, Christopher R. Shinohara
- 2011 – Carl J. Grillmair, Suzanne E. Smrekar, Yuhe T. Song, Timothy J. Lee, Eric Jensen, Jason Rowe, Jeff Scargle, Cheryl A. Nickerson
- 2013 – David Paige
- 2014 – Joshua Coleman, Daniel Huber
- 2015 – Carrie M. Anderson
- 2016 – David R. Ciardi, Amy R. Winebarger, Francesco Tombesi, Hiroya Yamaguchi, Ignacy Telesman, Jason Rowe
- 2017 – Sylvain Guiriec, Maria Cristina De Sanctis, Samuel Gulkis, Thomas H. Prettyman, Michele Vallisneri, Kasthuri J. Venkateswaran, Beth Lewandowski
- 2018 – Susan E. Mullally, Michael B. Stenger, Adolfo Figueroa Vinas, Gordon Holman, Lazaros Oreopoulos, Richard Ray, M. Cristina De Sanctis, Walter A. Petersen, Michael Russell
- 2019 – John D. Bolten, Carl R. Devore, Alex Glocer, Jonathan H. Jiang, Erin A. Kara, Fei Liu, Elizabeth A. MacDonald, Amy A. Simon, Lynn B. Wilson III, Cheol Park, Andreas Nathues
- 2020 – Renee C. Weber, Zaven Arzoumanian
- 2021 – John Baross, Eli Dwek, Floyd William Stecker, Xu Liu, Eleonora Troja
- 2022 – Sibasish Laha, Jane Rigby, Michael McElwain, Charles Nickolos Arge, Peter Kalmus
- 2023 –Hongbin Yu, Koji Mukai, Glyn Collinson, Pankaj Kumar, Ju-mee Ryoo, Noah Randolph-Flagg