Wikimedian of the Year

The Wikimedian of the Year is an annual award that honors Wikipedia editors and other contributors to Wikimedia projects to highlight major achievements within the Wikimedia movement, established in August 2011 by Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales. Wales selects the recipients and honors them at Wikimania, an annual conference of the Wikimedia Foundation—except in 2020, 2021, and 2022 when the recipients were announced at online meetings as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2011 to 2016, the award was named Wikipedian of the Year.

History

In 2011, the first title was given to Rauan Kenzhekhanuly for his work on Kazakh Wikipedia. The following year, it was awarded to an editor identified as "Demmy" for creating a bot to translate 15,000 short English articles into Yoruba, a language spoken in Nigeria. In 2013, Rémi Mathis of Wikimédia France and the French Wikipedia was named for his role in an article controversy. In 2014, the award was given posthumously to Ukrainian journalist Ihor Kostenko, who actively promoted the Ukrainian Wikipedia on social networking sites and was killed during a protest. Wales named an undisclosed recipient in 2015, and hopes someday to tell their story. In 2016, the first joint award was presented to Emily Temple-Wood and Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight for their efforts to combat harassment on Wikipedia and increase its coverage of women. Other recipients include Felix Nartey in 2017, Farhad Fatkullin in 2018, Emna Mizouni in 2019, Sandister Tei in 2020, Alaa Najjar in 2021, Olga Paredes in 2022, Taufik Rosman in 2023, and the youngest recipient, Hannah Clover, in 2024.
In addition to the main award, Susanna Mkrtchyan and Satdeep Gill were the first to receive honorable mentions in 2015 which continued until 2018. In 2021, the honorable mention award was re-introduced, but with a focus on affiliate staff or officers.
The award was expanded in 2021 with additional categories including Media Contributor of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, Tech Contributor of the Year, and Wikimedia Laureate. In 2024, an additional category of Functionary of the Year was added.

Lists of award recipients

Wikimedian of the Year (formerly Wikipedian of the Year)

Honorable mentions

Newcomer of the Year

The Newcomer of the Year award was first presented in 2021.

Year	Image	Recipient	Principal project	Rationale
2021		Carma Citrawati	WikiPustaka	First starting to edit the Balinese version of Wikipedia in 2019, Citrawati was instrumental in the development of a Balinese version of Wikisource called WikiPustaka through her valiant efforts to lead a team responsible for digitizing and translating ancient Balinese writings which were originally written on palm leaves.
2022		Nkem Osuigwe		With an account that started in 2019, Dr. Nkem Osuigwe helped to start a partnership with the African Library and Information Associations & Institutions in 2020, working with an existing professional network to generate over 27,000 edits and counting.
2023		Eugene Ormandy	Japanese Wikipedia	Ormandy created two Wikimedia user groups: Student Wikipedian Community in Waseda University Tokyo and the Toumon Wikipedian Club Japan. He is the first award recipient from Japan.
2024		Wayuu community	Wayuu Wikipedia	The Wayuu are an indigenous group of the Guajira Peninsula in Colombia and Venezuela. Fernández helped establish the Wikimedistas Wayúu user group and the Wayuu-language Wikipedia in 2023.
2025		Konan N’Da N’Dri	French Wikipedia	An active member of Wikimedia Côte d’Ivoire, Dadrik contributes to French Wikipedia as a patroller and shares his passion for astrophysics as a trainer.

Wikimedia Laureate (formerly 20th Year Honouree)

The 20th Year Honouree award was first presented in 2021. In 2022, the award was renamed Wikimedia Laureate.

Year	Image	Recipient	Principal project	Rationale
2021		Lodewijk Gelauff	Wiki Loves Monuments	Gelauff is a prolific contributor, a mentor to many Wikimedians, and a volunteer for many community groups and efforts. He is one of the initiators of Wiki Loves Monuments, the annual Wikipedia photo contest around cultural heritage, and has led this project for a decade.
2022		Andrew Lih		Lih is an internationally renowned Wikipedia expert, author, professor, GLAMs activist, and long-time Wikimedia contributor. His work has inspired individuals and groups in the Wikimedia movement, especially in North America and the ESEAP region.
2022		Deror Lin	Hebrew Wikipedia, Wikimania	Lin was a prolific contributor going back to the founding of Wikipedia. He wrote over 2 percent of the entire Hebrew Wikipedia. He participated in many 100wikidays challenges, particularly for Hebrew Wikipedia, and contributed thousands of images. He was also a key organizer of multiple Wikimanias.
2023		Siobhan Leachman	WikiProject New Zealand	Leachman has improved content about New Zealand biodiversity and notable women on Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons.
2024		Martin		DerHexer is the longest-serving Wikimedia steward, becoming one in 2007; he is also an administrator of English Wikipedia, Meta-Wiki, and Wikimedia Commons.
2025		Anne Clin	English Wikipedia	Risker is a longtime English Wikipedia administrator and a two-time Arbitration Committee member who has held numerous key global roles within the Wikimedia movement.

Tech Contributor of the Year (formerly Tech Innovator)

The Tech Innovator award was first presented in 2021. The honor was renamed Tech Contributor of the Year in 2022.

Year	Image	Recipient	Principal project	Rationale
2021		Jay Prakash	Software development and support	Prakash has contributed to various technical projects within Wikipedia, from providing tech support via Indic-TechCom to developing IndicOCR, a tool extending the capabilities of GoogleOCR for several Indic languages. Jimmy Wales says, "Jay’s significant contributions have helped improve MediaWiki, the foundational software that underpins all of the projects. In addition to his technical achievements, he is a strong advocate for the technical community and epitomizes the generosity and collaborative nature of our movement."
2022		Taavi Väänänen	Wikimedia Cloud Services, CentralAuth MediaWiki extension	Väänänen has been a critical volunteer contributor to Wikimedia Cloud Services, including Toolforge and Cloud VPS, key pieces of infrastructure that let community members host their Wikimedia-related bots, tools, and other software projects. He also helps maintain the CentralAuth MediaWiki extension, which allows users to use a single user account on all public Wikimedia sites.
2023		Zabe	Wikimedia infrastructure	Zabe is recognized for "helping with deployments, bug fixes, and incidents in general, and, in particular,... for maintaining Checkuser and CentralAuth codes, for supporting the comment database refactor migration revision, and for the technical work behind creating new wikis."
2024		Siddharth VP	MediaWiki and draft submission interface	Siddharth has contributed to Twinkle, an editor tool, and MediaWiki, the database software which Wikipedia relies on. In addition, he has developed his own user scripts and bots. He is most proud of his work on the draft submission interface.
2025		Egbe Eugene	Wikimedia tool development	Eugene helped build Wikimedia movement technical capacity across Africa and played a key role in training, tool development, and the creation of the ISA Tool.

Media Contributor of the Year (formerly Rich Media)

The Rich Media award was first presented in 2021. The honor was renamed Media Contributor of the Year in 2022.

Year	Image	Recipient	Principal project	Rationale
2021		Ananya Mondal	Wikimedia Commons	Mondal launched the Wiki Loves Butterfly project in 2016.
2022		Annie Rauwerda	Depths of Wikipedia	Rauwerda uses creative means on social media to spread the word about Wikimedia projects and communities that power them. She started the Depths of Wikipedia account that has now more than 1.5 million followers across Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
2023		Pax Ahimsa Gethen	English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons	Gethen uploads photographs to Wikimedia Commons, focused on LGBTQ culture, and is an active participant at English Wikipedia's WikiProject LGBTQ+ studies.
2024		Yılmaz Caner Özyayıkçı	Turkish Wikipedia	Özyayıkçı helps design graphics for several Wikimedia conferences. He is also a co-founder of Wikimedia Japan-Türkiye Friendship.
2025	100px	Vera de Kok	Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata	De Kok is a photographer and programmer who has uploaded over 85,000 files to Wikimedia Commons. Of these 7,500 are her original creations, which appeared on 134 different language editions of Wikipedia.