Science and technology take center stage this election year

Supplementing the Franklin Medals are the two newest Franklin Institute Awards: the Bower Award for Achievement in Science and the Bower Award for Business Leadership, made possible by a $7.5 million bequest from the noted Philadelphia chemical engineer Henry Bower. One of the most robust science prizes in the country, the Bower Award for Achievement in Science carries a cash prize of $250,000.

Laureates of The Franklin Institute are brought to Philadelphia each April for a weeklong series of events and activities aimed at familiarizing students and the community with their remarkable accomplishments, and what the effects they might have on the future. The week culminates with a grand awards ceremony and elegant dinner, befitting the honor and distinction of this historic awards program.

The list of Franklin Institute Award laureates is a roster of science and technology’s most important and influential names over the last two centuries, men and women who have deepened human knowledge at both the basic and the applied levels. Many of them have also been recipients of the Nobel Prize. This list includes Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Marie and Pierre Curie, Thomas Edison, Jane Goodall, Orville Wright, Stephen Hawking, Francis Crick and James Watson, and Jacques Cousteau.

Mission

The Franklin Institute’s mission is to inspire an understanding of and passion for science and technology learning. Encouraging excellence and recognizing the far reaching impact of the laureates’ achievements is one important way to preserve the legacy of Benjamin Franklin.

Through the Franklin Institute Awards, we seek to broaden public awareness and encourage an understanding of the worlds of science and technology. Accordingly, the work of nominated individuals is evaluated on the basis of uncommon insight, skill and creativity, as well as its ability to impact the future or have some public benefit. In addition to celebrating the ‘Franklins’ of today, The Franklin Institute hopes to also inspire and influence the ‘Franklins’ of tomorrow.

Albert Eschenmoser receives the 2008 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry for his lifetime of research into the structures of a cell's nucleic acids -- which carry genetic information -- and his contributions to understanding just why RNA and DNA have the structures they do.

It is one thing to determine the structure of a complex molecule like DNA -- which if stretched straight would be some 2 meters long -- or Vitamin B12; it is another to make copies of such biologically-important things and understand them so well as to know why they formed in nature as they did. Through his seminal efforts devising how to create such complicated molecules in the lab, Albert Eschenmoser has begun to answer the question of why RNA and DNA have the shape they do, and for this he is awarded the 2008 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry.

Arun G. Phadke and James S. Thorp receive the 2008 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering for their contributions to microprocessor controllers in electric power systems that, with their power to monitor and protect components of the power grid, have significantly decreased power blackouts