President Donald J. Trump presented the National Medals of Science and the National Medals of Technology and Innovation at the Science: A New Golden Age Summit to six innovators, described as the nation’s highest honors for exemplary achievement and leadership in science and technology.
Recipients of the National Medal of Science were Elon Musk, cited for engineering achievements pushing frontiers of space exploration and other fields, Sergey Brin, cited for foundational algorithms for information retrieval, Jensen Huang, cited for advancing the graphics processing unit into a general-purpose computing architecture, and Lisa Su, cited for leadership in semiconductor engineering and chiplet-based integration that powered the first exascale supercomputer. Recipients of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation were Michael Dell and Satya Nadella, recognized respectively for advancing widespread adoption of computing and building a worldwide technology company, and for transformative leadership in cloud computing and construction of hyperscale infrastructure.
The National Medal of Science has been bestowed by the president since 1963 for outstanding contributions to science in service of the United States, while the National Medal of Technology and Innovation has been awarded since 1985 to innovators whose work strengthened the economy and improved quality of life. The White House said President Trump is committed to restoring U.S. global scientific and technological leadership and that the medalists pioneered breakthroughs for an era of super intelligence, including advances in parallel computing, semiconductor design and hyperscale infrastructure.
Michael Kratsios, Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said each of the medalists had transformed their field and laid foundations for indispensable technologies, adding that innovators like the six awardees are the architects of the future. The summit follows the July 2026 release of Science: A New Golden Age, described as the first comprehensive rethinking of the U.S. science and technology enterprise since Vannevar Bush’s 1945 Science: The Endless Frontier, which recommends strengthening support for early-career scientists, pursuing ambitious scientific missions and scaling super intelligence-driven discovery through the Genesis Mission.