National Science Foundation
Programs, & Facts
National Science Foundation (NSF), an independent agency of the U.S. government that supports basic research and education in a wide range of sciences and in mathematics and engineering. Inspired by advances in science and technology that occurred as a result of World War II, the NSF was established by the U.S. Congress in the National Science Foundation Act of 1950. From a budget of approximately $8.5 billion in the early 2020s, it provided about 11,000 awards a year to scientists, students, and teachers. It provided about one-fifth of total federal support of basic scientific research at academic institutions, making it a major source for funding in basic research in the United States.
The NSF grants funding for research in biological sciences; geosciences; mathematics; physical sciences; Arctic and Antarctic research; social, behavioral, and economic sciences; computer and information sciences; and engineering. It also provides support for educational programs in mathematics and sciences at elementary school through university graduate levels.
While the NSF does not operate laboratories, it funds and manages the U.S. Antarctic Program, established by the NSF in 1959, which conducts research in several sciences. The NSF is the executive agency for the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., a consortium of more than 40 universities that conducts research in astronomy at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, and other observatories. In 1994, construction began on the Gemini Observatory—twin 8-metre (26-foot) telescopes for optimum viewing sites in Hawaii and Chile—for which the NSF provided the majority of the funding; the project was completed in 2000. Among other activities, the NSF cooperates in managing the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and supports international cooperation among American and foreign researchers. Among the most notable results of NSF grants were the experimental computer networks that developed into the Internet.
The NSF is also responsible for administering the National Medal of Science, presented by the president of the United States. Winners of the medal are listed in the table.
year
name
field
*Formal presentation of the medals usually occurs during the year following their formal designation.
1962
Theodore von Karman
aerospace engineering
1963
Luis W. Alvarez
physics
Vannevar Bush
electrical engineering
John Robinson Pierce
communications engineering
Cornelius Barnardus van Niel
biology
Norbert Wiener
mathematics
1964
Roger Adams
chemistry
Othmar Herman Ammann
civil engineering
Theodosius Dobzhansky
genetics
Charles Stark Draper
aerospace engineering
Solomon Lefschetz
mathematics
Neal Elgar Miller
psychology
H. Marston Morse
mathematics
Marshall Warren Nirenberg
biochemistry
Julian Seymour Schwinger
physics
Harold C. Urey
chemistry
Robert Burns Woodward
chemistry
1965
John Bardeen
physics
Peter J.W. Debye
physical chemistry
Hugh L. Dryden
physics
Clarence L. Johnson
aerospace engineering
Leon M. Lederman
physics
Warren K. Lewis
chemical engineering
Francis Peyton Rous
pathology
William W. Rubey
geology
George Gaylord Simpson
paleontology
Donald D. Van Slyke
chemistry
Oscar Zariski
mathematics
1966
Jacob A.B. Bjerknes
meteorology
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
astrophysics
Henry Eyring
chemistry
Edward F. Knipling
entomology
Fritz Albert Lipmann
biochemistry
John Willard Milnor
mathematics
William C. Rose
biochemistry
Claude E. Shannon
mathematics, electrical engineering
John H. Van Vleck
physics
Sewall Wright
genetics
Vladimir Kosma Zworykin
electrical engineering
1967
Jesse W. Beams
physics
Francis Birch
geophysics
Gregory Breit
physics
Paul Joseph Cohen
mathematics
Kenneth S. Cole
biophysics
Louis P. Hammett
chemistry
Harry F. Harlow
psychology
Michael Heidelberger
immunology
George B. Kistiakowsky
chemistry
Edwin Herbert Land
physics
Igor I. Sikorsky
aircraft design
Alfred H. Sturtevant
genetics
1968
Horace A. Barker
biochemistry
Paul D. Bartlett
chemistry
Bernard B. Brodie
pharmacology
Detlev W. Bronk
biophysics
J. Presper Eckert, Jr.
engineering, computer science
Herbert Friedman
astrophysics
Jay L. Lush
livestock genetics
Nathan M. Newmark
civil engineering
Jerzy Neyman
statistics
Lars Onsager
chemistry
B.F. Skinner
psychology
Eugene Paul Wigner
mathematical physics
1969
Herbert C. Brown
chemistry
William Feller
mathematics
Robert J. Huebner
virology
Jack Kilby
electrical engineering
Ernst Mayr
biology
Wolfgang K.H. Panofsky
physics
1970
Richard Dagobert Brauer
mathematics
Robert H. Dicke
physics
Barbara McClintock
genetics
George E. Mueller
physics
Albert Bruce Sabin
medicine, vaccine development
Allan R. Sandage
astronomy
John C. Slater
physics
John Archibald Wheeler
physics
Saul Winstein
chemistry
1971
no awards given
1972
no awards given
1973
Daniel I. Arnon
biochemistry
Carl Djerassi
chemistry
Harold E. Edgerton
electrical engineering, photography
Maurice Ewing
geophysics
Arie Jan Haagen-Smit
biochemistry
Vladimir Haensel
chemical engineering
Frederick Seitz
physics
Earl W. Sutherland, Jr.
biochemistry
John Wilder Tukey
statistics
Richard T. Whitcomb
aerospace engineering
Robert Rathbun Wilson
particle physics
1974
Nicolaas Bloembergen
physics
Britton Chance
biophysics
Erwin Chargaff
biochemistry
Paul J. Flory
physical chemistry
William A. Fowler
nuclear astrophysics
Kurt Gödel
mathematics
Rudolf Kompfner
physics
James Van Gundia Neel
genetics
Linus Pauling
chemistry
Ralph Brazelton Peck
geotechnical engineering
Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer
physical chemistry
James Augustine Shannon
physiology
Abel Wolman
sanitary engineering
1975
John W. Backus
computer science
Manson Benedict
nuclear engineering
Hans Albrecht Bethe
theoretical physics
Shiing-shen Chern
mathematics
George B. Dantzig
mathematics
Hallowell Davis
physiology
Paul Gyorgy
medicine, vitamin research
Sterling Brown Hendricks
chemistry
Joseph O. Hirschfelder
chemistry
William Hayward Pickering
physics
Lewis H. Sarett
chemistry
Frederick Emmons Terman
electrical engineering
Orville Alvin Vogel
research agronomy
Wernher von Braun
aerospace engineering
E. Bright Wilson, Jr.
chemistry
Chien-Shiung Wu
physics
1976
Morris Cohen
materials science
Kurt Otto Friedrichs
mathematics
Peter C. Goldmark
communications engineering
Samuel Abraham Goudsmit
physics
Roger Charles Louis Guillemin
physiology
Herbert S. Gutowsky
chemistry
Erwin W. Mueller
physics
Keith Roberts Porter
cell biology
Efraim Racker
biochemistry
Frederick D. Rossini
chemistry
Verner E. Suomi
meteorology
Henry Taube
chemistry
George Eugene Uhlenbeck
physics
Hassler Whitney
mathematics
Edward O. Wilson
biology
1977
no awards given
1978
no awards given
1979
Robert H. Burris
biochemistry
Elizabeth C. Crosby
neuroanatomy
Joseph L. Doob
mathematics
Richard P. Feynman
theoretical physics
Donald E. Knuth
computer science
Arthur Kornberg
biochemistry
Emmett N. Leith
electrical engineering
Herman F. Mark
chemistry
Raymond D. Mindlin
mechanical engineering
Robert N. Noyce
computer science
Severo Ochoa
biochemistry
Earl R. Parker
materials science
Edward M. Purcell
physics
Simon Ramo
electrical engineering
John H. Sinfelt
chemical engineering
Lyman Spitzer, Jr.
astrophysics
Earl Reece Stadtman
biochemistry
George Ledyard Stebbins
botany, genetics
Paul Alfred Weiss
biology
Victor F. Weisskopf
physics
1980
no awards given
1981
Philip Handler
biochemistry
1982
Philip W. Anderson
physics
Seymour Benzer
molecular biology
Glenn W. Burton
genetics
Mildred Cohn
biochemistry
F. Albert Cotton
chemistry
Edward H. Heinemann
aerospace engineering
Donald L. Katz
chemical engineering
Yoichiro Nambu
theoretical physics
Marshall H. Stone
mathematics
Gilbert Stork
organic chemistry
Edward Teller
nuclear physics
Charles Hard Townes
physics
1983
Howard L. Bachrach
biochemistry
Paul Berg
biochemistry
E. Margaret Burbidge
astronomy
Maurice Goldhaber
physics
Herman H. Goldstine
computer science
William R. Hewlett
electrical engineering
Roald Hoffmann
chemistry
Helmut E. Landsberg
climatology
George M. Low
aerospace engineering
Walter H. Munk
oceanography
George C. Pimentel
chemistry
Frederick Reines
physics
Wendell L. Roelofs
chemistry, entomology
Bruno B. Rossi
astrophysics
Berta V. Scharrer
neuroscience
John Robert Schrieffer
physics
Isadore M. Singer
mathematics
John G. Trump
electrical engineering
Richard N. Zare
chemistry
1984
no awards given
1985
no awards given
1986
Solomon J. Buchsbaum
physics
Stanley Cohen
biochemistry
Horace R. Crane
physics
Herman Feshbach
physics
Harry Gray
chemistry
Donald A. Henderson
medicine, public health
Robert Hofstadter
physics
Peter D. Lax
mathematics
Yuan Tseh Lee
chemistry
Hans Wolfgang Liepmann
aerospace engineering
T.Y. Lin
civil engineering
Carl S. Marvel
chemistry
Vernon B. Mountcastle
neurophysiology
Bernard M. Oliver
electrical engineering
George Emil Palade
cell biology
Herbert A. Simon
social science
Joan A. Steitz
molecular biology
Frank H. Westheimer
chemistry
Chen Ning Yang
theoretical physics
Antoni Zygmund
mathematics
1987
Philip Hauge Abelson
physical chemistry
Anne Anastasi
psychology
Robert Byron Bird
chemical engineering
Raoul Bott
mathematics
Michael E. DeBakey
heart surgery
Theodor O. Diener
plant pathology
Harry Eagle
cell biology
Walter M. Elsasser
physics
Michael H. Freedman
mathematics
William S. Johnson
chemistry
Har Gobind Khorana
biochemistry
Paul C. Lauterbur
chemistry
Rita Levi-Montalcini
neurology
George E. Pake
research, physics
H. Bolton Seed
civil engineering
George J. Stigler
economics
Walter H. Stockmayer
chemistry
Max Tishler
chemistry
James Alfred Van Allen
physics
Ernst Weber
electrical engineering
1988
William O. Baker
chemistry
Konrad E. Bloch
biochemistry
David Allan Bromley
physics
Michael S. Brown
molecular genetics
Paul C.W. Chu
physics
Stanley N. Cohen
genetics
Elias James Corey
chemistry
Daniel C. Drucker
engineering education
Milton Friedman
economics
Joseph L. Goldstein
molecular genetics
Ralph E. Gomory
mathematics, research
Willis M. Hawkins
aerospace engineering
Maurice R. Hilleman
vaccine research
George W. Housner
earthquake engineering
Eric Kandel
neurobiology
Joseph B. Keller
mathematics
Walter Kohn
physics
Norman Foster Ramsey
physics
Jack Steinberger
physics
Rosalyn S. Yalow
medical physics
1989
Arnold O. Beckman
chemistry
Richard B. Bernstein
chemistry
Melvin Calvin
biochemistry
Harry G. Drickamer
chemistry, physics
Katherine Esau
botany
Herbert E. Grier
aerospace engineering
Viktor Hamburger
biology
Samuel Karlin
mathematics
Philip Leder
genetics
Joshua Lederberg
genetics
Saunders Mac Lane
mathematics
Rudolph A. Marcus
chemistry
Harden M. McConnell
chemistry
Eugene N. Parker
theoretical astrophysics
Robert P. Sharp
geology
Donald C. Spencer
mathematics
Roger Wolcott Sperry
neurobiology
Henry M. Stommel
oceanography
Harland G. Wood
biochemistry
1990
Baruj Benacerraf
pathology, immunology
Elkan R. Blout
chemistry
Herbert W. Boyer
biochemistry, genetics
George F. Carrier
mathematics
Allan MacLeod Cormack
physics
Mildred S. Dresselhaus
physics
Karl August Folkers
chemistry
Nick Holonyak, Jr.
electrical engineering
Leonid Hurwicz
economics
Stephen Cole Kleene
mathematics
Daniel E. Koshland, Jr.
biochemistry
Edward B. Lewis
genetics
John McCarthy
computer science
Edwin Mattison McMillan
nuclear physics
David G. Nathan
pediatrics
Robert V. Pound
physics
Roger R.D. Revelle
oceanography
John D. Roberts
chemistry
Patrick Suppes
philosophy, statistics education
E. Donnall Thomas
medicine
1991
Mary Ellen Avery
pediatrics
Ronald Breslow
chemistry
Alberto P. Calderon
mathematics
Gertrude B. Elion
pharmacology
George H. Heilmeier
electrical engineering
Dudley R. Herschbach
chemistry
G. Evelyn Hutchinson
zoology
Elvin A. Kabat
immunology
Robert W. Kates
geography
Luna B. Leopold
hydrology, geology
Salvador Luria
biology
Paul A. Marks
hematology, cancer research
George A. Miller
psychology
Arthur L. Schawlow
physics
Glenn T. Seaborg
nuclear chemistry
Folke K. Skoog
botany
H. Guyford Stever
aerospace engineering
Edward C. Stone
physics
Steven Weinberg
nuclear physics
Paul C. Zamecnik
molecular biology
1992
Eleanor J. Gibson
psychology
Allen Newell
computer science
Calvin F. Quate
electrical engineering
Eugene M. Shoemaker
planetary geology
Howard E. Simmons, Jr.
chemistry
Maxine F. Singer
biochemistry, administration
Howard Martin Temin
virology
John Roy Whinnery
electrical engineering
1993
Alfred Y. Cho
electrical engineering
Donald J. Cram
chemistry
Val Logsdon Fitch
particle physics
Norman Hackerman
chemistry
Martin D. Kruskal
mathematics
Daniel Nathans
microbiology
Vera C. Rubin
astronomy
Salome G. Waelsch
molecular genetics
1994
Ray W. Clough
civil engineering
John Cocke
computer science
Thomas Eisner
chemical ecology
George S. Hammond
chemistry
Robert K. Merton
sociology
Elizabeth F. Neufeld
biochemistry
Albert W. Overhauser
physics
Frank Press
geophysics, administration
1995
Thomas Robert Cech
biochemistry
Hans Georg Dehmelt
physics
Peter M. Goldreich
astrophysics
Hermann A. Haus
electrical engineering
Isabella L. Karle
chemistry
Louis Nirenberg
mathematics
Alexander Rich
molecular biology
Roger N. Shepard
psychology
1996
Wallace S. Broecker
geochemistry
Norman Davidson
chemistry, molecular biology
James L. Flanagan
electrical engineering
Richard M. Karp
computer science
C. Kumar N. Patel
electrical engineering
Ruth Patrick
limnology
Paul Samuelson
economics
Stephen Smale
mathematics
1997
William K. Estes
psychology
Darleane C. Hoffman
chemistry
Harold S. Johnston
chemistry
Marshall N. Rosenbluth
theoretical plasma physics
Martin Schwarzschild
astrophysics
James Dewey Watson
genetics, biophysics
Robert A. Weinberg
biology, cancer research
George W. Wetherill
planetary science
Shing-Tung Yau
mathematics
1998
Bruce N. Ames
biochemistry, cancer research
Don L. Anderson
geophysics
John N. Bahcall
astrophysics
John W. Cahn
materials science
Cathleen Synge Morawetz
mathematics
Janet D. Rowley
medicine, cancer research
Eli Ruckenstein
chemical engineering
George M. Whitesides
chemistry
William Julius Wilson
sociology
1999
David Baltimore
virology, administration
Felix E. Browder
mathematics
Ronald R. Coifman
mathematics
James Watson Cronin
particle physics
Jared Diamond
physiology
Leo P. Kadanoff
theoretical physics
Lynn Margulis
microbiology
Stuart A. Rice
chemistry
John Ross
chemistry
Susan Solomon
atmospheric science
Robert M. Solow
economics
Kenneth N. Stevens
electrical engineering, speech
2000
Nancy C. Andreasen
psychiatry
John D. Baldeschwieler
chemistry
Gary S. Becker
economics
Yuan-Cheng B. Fung
bioengineering
Ralph F. Hirschmann
chemistry
Willis Eugene Lamb, Jr.
physics
Jeremiah P. Ostriker
astrophysics
Peter H. Raven
botany
John Griggs Thompson
mathematics
Karen K. Uhlenbeck
mathematics
Gilbert F. White
geography
Carl R. Woese
microbiology
2001
Andreas Acrivos
chemical engineering
Francisco J. Ayala
molecular biology
George F. Bass
nautical archaeology
Mario R. Capecchi
genetics
Marvin L. Cohen
materials science
Ernest R. Davidson
chemistry
Raymond Davis, Jr.
chemistry, astrophysics
Ann M. Graybiel
neuroscience
Charles D. Keeling
oceanography
Gene E. Likens
ecology
Victor A. McKusick
medical genetics
Calyampudi R. Rao
mathematics, statistics
Gabor A. Somorjai
chemistry
Elias M. Stein
mathematics
Harold Varmus
virology, administration
2002
Leo L. Beranek
engineering
John I. Brauman
chemistry
James E. Darnell
cell biology
Richard L. Garwin
physics
James G. Glimm
mathematics, statistics
W. Jason Morgan
geophysics
Evelyn M. Witkin
genetics
Edward Witten
mathematical physics
2003
J. Michael Bishop
microbiology
G. Brent Dalrymple
geology
Carl R. de Boor
mathematics
Riccardo Giacconi
astrophysics
R. Duncan Luce
cognitive science
John M. Prausnitz
chemical engineering
Solomon H. Snyder
neuroscience
Charles Yanofsky
molecular biology
2004
Kenneth J. Arrow
economics
Norman E. Borlaug
agriculture
Robert N. Clayton
geochemistry
Edwin N. Lightfoot
engineering
Stephen J. Lippard
chemistry
Phillip A. Sharp
molecular biology, biochemistry
Thomas E. Starzl
medicine
Dennis P. Sullivan
mathematics
2005
Jan D. Achenbach
mechanical engineering
Ralph A. Alpher
astronomy
Gordon H. Bower
psychology
Bradley Efron
statistics
Anthony S. Fauci
immunology
Tobin J. Marks
chemistry
Lonnie G. Thompson
glaciology
Torsten N. Wiesel
neurobiology
2006
Hyman Bass
mathematics
Marvin H. Caruthers
genetic engineering
Rita R. Colwell
marine microbiology
Peter B. Dervan
organic chemistry
Nina V. Fedoroff
molecular biology
Daniel Kleppner
atomic physics
Robert S. Langer
medical research
Lubert Stryer
biochemistry
2007
Fay Ajzenberg-Selove
nuclear physics
Mostafa A. El-Sayed
laser dynamics
Leonard Kleinrock
Internet technology
Robert J. Lefkowitz
receptor biology
Bert W. O’Malley
molecular biology
Charles P. Slichter
condensed-matter physics
Andrew J. Viterbi
wireless communications
David J. Wineland
ionic physics
2008
Berni Alder
condensed-matter physics
Francis Collins
genetics, genomics
Joanna S. Fowler
chemistry, neuroscience
Elaine Fuchs
cell biology, molecular genetics
James E. Gunn
astronomy
Rudolph E. Kálmán
engineering
Michael I. Posner
neuroscience
JoAnne Stubbe
chemistry
J. Craig Venter
genomics
2009
Yakir Aharonov
quantum physics
Stephen J. Benkovic
organic chemistry
Esther M. Conwell
physics
Marye Anne Fox
physical chemistry
Susan Lee Lindquist
molecular biology
Mortimer Mishkin
cognitive science
David Mumford
mathematics
Stanley Prusiner
biochemistry, neurology
Warren Washington
climate research
Amnon Yariv
engineering
2010
Jacqueline Barton
biochemistry
Ralph Brinster
genetics
Shu Chien
physiology, bioengineering
Rudolf Jaenisch
epigenetics
Peter J. Stang
organic chemistry
Richard A. Tapia
mathematics, education
Srinivasa S.R. Varadhan
mathematics
What's Your Reaction?