The Distinguished Award of Merit is the Council's highest award given to an individual for exemplary achievement in the field of engineering, pure or applied natural science, or an educator in one of more of these fields, either American or foreign.

The nominee must have unquestioned integrity and have displayed initiative, inventiveness, exceptional industry, individuality, cooperativeness, and leadership, resulting in a preeminently high measure of accomplishment in the field of the nominee's activities, according to the judgment of the associates of the nominee and other specialists in the same field. The nominee must be of such stature and renown to continue the prestige and purpose of the award.

Since 1952, ACEC's Distinguished Award of Merit has been bestowed annually upon leaders in government, education, science, and business, including former Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Herbert Hoover, along with General Lucius Clay, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, Carl Sagan, W. Edwards Deming, and Astronaut Neil Armstrong.

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2023's recipient is Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA’s first female Launch Director. Thompson leads the launch operations for NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems and Orion’s first test flight, called Artemis I. Artemis is NASA’s robotic and human Moon exploration program and the first step in the next era of human exploration, establishing a sustainable presence on the Moon to prepare for missions to Mars.

Distinguished Award of Merit Recipients

1952

Clarence Decatur Howe

1953

Vannevar Bush

1954

Herbert Hoover

1955

Benjamin F. Fairless

1956

Ralph Budd

1957

Donald A. Quarles

1958

James Rhyne Killian, Jr.

1959

Dwight David Eisenhower

1960

Walker Lee Cisler

1961

Monroe Jackson Rathbone

1962

Lucius D. Clay

1963

Robert Moses

1964

Frederick Russell Kappel

1965

O. H. Ammann

1966

George William Burpee

1967

Scott Turner

1968

Lee Alvin Dubridge

1969

Peter Kiewit

1970

Donald Edward Marlowe

1971

Daniel Jackson Evans

1972

Charles Stark Draper

1973

Arthur Casagrande

1974

Simon Ramo

1975

Arthur J. Fox, Jr.

1976

William H. Pickering

1977

David Packard

1978

James A. Van Allen

 

 

1979

Jerome B. Wiesner

1980

Lt. Gen. john W. Morris

1983

Admiral Hyman G. Rickover

1984

Paul E. Garver

1985

Commodore grace M. Hopper

1986

Carl Sagan

1987

T.Y. Lin

1988

Ralph B. Peck

1989

W. Edwards Deming

1990

Leon M. Lederman

1991

Robert A. Roe

1992

Jack K. Lemley

1993

Frank L. Dalton

1994

Don U. Deere

1995

Thomas R. Rutherford

1996

Albert A. Dorman

1997

Henry L. Michel

1998

Richard H. Stanley

1999

Lt. Gen Ret. Henry J. Hatch

2000

James W. Poirot

2002

Rodney E. Slater

2003

Jack B. Brooks

2005

Neil Armstrong

2006

Norman Mineta

2008

David P. Billington

2009

Ralph Peterson

2015

Robert Ballard

2023

Charlie Blackwell-Thompson

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