Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) laureates

William Henry Gates III is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Following Microsoft's initial public offering in 1986 and the subsequent increase in its stock price, Gates became the world's then-youngest billionaire in 1987, at age 31. Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's wealthiest person for 18 out of 24 years between 1995 and 2017, including 13 years consecutively from 1995 to 2007. Gates became the first centibillionaire in 1999, when his net worth briefly surpassed US$100 billion. According to Forbes, as of February 2026, his net worth stood at US$107.7 billion, making him the 18th-wealthiest individual in the world.

Dame Valerie Jane Morris Goodall was an English primatologist and anthropologist. Regarded as a pioneer in primate ethology, and described by many publications as "the world's preeminent chimpanzee expert", she was best known for more than six decades of field research on the social and family life of wild chimpanzees in the Kasakela chimpanzee community at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. Beginning in 1960, under the mentorship of the palaeontologist Louis Leakey, Goodall's research demonstrated that chimpanzees share many key traits with humans, such as using tools, having complex emotions, forming lasting social bonds, engaging in organised warfare, and passing on knowledge across generations, which redefined the traditional view that humans are uniquely different from other animals.

Australian-American biological researcher

Nobel prize winning US scientist and engineer (born 1956)

Egyptian chemist

Japanese physicist and astronomer (1926-2020)

American theoretical physicist (1921-2015)

Japanese doctor of Engineering (1954-), inventor of the blue LED, 2014 Nobel laureate in Physics

American physicist

American physicist

American astrophysicist and cosmologist

Hungarian biochemist

German physicist

German physicist

American chemist and Nobel Laureate (born 1941)

Canadian physicist (born 1943)

American media mogul

Nobel Prize winner, and Professor of Clinical Microbiology

American scientist (1914-2006)

American physicist, professor (born 1961)

Nobel prize winning US physicist

Chinese-American physicist, Nobel laureate

Nobel prize winning American chemist (1942-2021)

American materials scientist (1922–2023)

American neurologist and biochemist

Michael Saul Dell is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world's largest technology infrastructure companies.

American scientist (born 1933)

American businessman, co-founder of Intel Corporation (1929–2023)

American developmental biologist

American immunologist and Nobel laureate (born 1948)

American geneticist

Japanese-American meteorologist and climatologist (1931–)

Indian-American business executive and former CEO of PepsiCo (born 1955)

American physician-scientist (born 1959)

American electrical engineer and computer scientist (1921–2017)

American chemist (1943–2026)

German-born American biophysicist and Nobel laureate

British cosmologist and astrophysicist (1942-)

American theoretical physicist and cosmologist

Belgian physicist and mathematician

American physicist (1930-2017)

American engineer (1926–2011)

American astrophysicist

American scientist and inventor (1936–2022)

Russian astronomer (born 1943)

American physicist (1928–2022)

American businessman

Italian physicist (1935–2010)

Australian physicist

American geneticist (1921–2007)

Filipino politician and diplomat (1899-1985)

American physicist (1934–2005)

American physicist (1968–2016)

American biomedical engineer

American biologist (1933–2008)

American mathematician (1932–2016)

science and engineering award presented by the Franklin Institute (1824–)

American engineer and inventor

Spanish theoretical physicist

American aeroplanes designer and businessman (1892–1981)