Award of Merit

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.