US President Donald Trump presented the National Medals of Science and the National Medals of Technology and Innovation on Thursday, October 8, to six individuals for their exemplary achievement and leadership in science and technology. A White House statement labelled them as “America’s greatest living innovators”.
Who are the six innovators, and where were they born?
One of the interesting takeaways from the ceremony is that of the six tech titans recognised, five are foreign-born immigrants. Elon Musk, Sergey Brin, Jensen Huang, and Lisa Su were the recipients of the National Medal of Science. Michael Dell and Satya Nadella received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
Elon Musk: Co-founder of seven companies, including Tesla, SpaceX and xAI, Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa.
He was honoured “For engineering achievements of extraordinary ambition and scale that have pushed the frontiers of space exploration, intelligent systems, communications, and beyond, renewing American technological leadership and opening a new chapter in American manufacturing.”
Sergey Brin: The Google co-founder and former president of Alphabet, was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1973.
{{/usCountry}}Sergey Brin: The Google co-founder and former president of Alphabet, was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1973.
{{/usCountry}}He received the reward “For the development of foundational algorithms for information retrieval and data processing that revolutionized how the world accesses information across science, commerce, and in the course of everyday life.”
Jensen Huang: The co-founder, CEO and president of Nvidia was born in 1963 in Tainan, Taiwan.
The tech leader was awarded “For advancing the graphics processing unit into a general-purpose computing architecture through innovations in processor design and software, transforming massively parallel computation and powering breakthroughs in scientific computing and super intelligence.”
Lisa Su: The CEO of semiconductor firm Advanced Micro Devices was also born in Taiwan in 1969 and immigrated to the US as a kid with her family.
She was awarded “For a lifetime of leadership in semiconductor engineering and high-performance computing through innovations in processor architecture and chiplet-based integration that powered the world’s first exascale supercomputer and opened new frontiers in computational performance.”
Satya Nadella: The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, was born in Hyderabad, India, in 1967.
The tech CEO was awarded “For his transformative leadership of a critical American technology company, which led to its rejuvenation for a new era of cloud computing, and for his construction of the hyperscale infrastructure that enabled the training and global deployment of American super intelligence.”
Michael Dell: It is only Michael Dell, founder of Dell Technologies, who was born in Houston, Texas, in 1965.
The American founder received the award “For advancing a vision of widespread adoption of personal and enterprise computing; for his technical and business management skills building a worldwide technology company; and for his support for the next generation of American scientists, engineers, and technologists.”
Net worth of each award recipient:
While Elon Musk’s net worth is estimated at $990.9 billion, Sergey Brin's is $262.7 billion. Jensen Huang and Lisa Su’s estimated net worths are $199.5 billion and $3.4 billion, respectively.
Satya Nadella’s net worth is estimated at $1.4 billion, and Michael Dell's is $278.3 billion.
(Data about net worth is based on Forbes reports)