Clarke Awardees
Each of our awardees shares a unique story and perspective at our annual live event. Explore our many past events and plan to be there in person for this year’s Unleash Imagination event in Washington, D.C.
2023 Awards
Award for Lifetime Achievement:
Romain Bausch Award Video
Award for Imagination in Service to Society:
Nnedi Okorafor Award Video
Award for Innovator:
National Geographic Society Award Video
2022 Awards
Award for Lifetime Achievement:
Francis Collins Award Video
Award for Imagination in Service to Society:
Cory Doctorow Award Video
Award for Innovator:
Esther Dyson Award Video
2021 Awards
Award for Lifetime Achievement:
Dr. Michio Kaku Interview Video
Award for Imagination in Service to Society:
Samuel R. Delany Interview Video
Award for Innovator:
NOVA
2020 Awards
Award for Lifetime Achievement:
William H Draper III Interview Video
Award for Imagination in Service to Society:
Ted Chiang Interview Video
Award for Innovator:
Dr. Fabiola Gianotti Interview Video
2019 Awards
Award for Lifetime Achievement:
Lord Martin Rees Video
Award for Imagination in Service to Society:
George R.R. Martin Video
Award for Innovator:
Brian Lamb Video
2018 Awards
Award for Lifetime Achievement:
Irwin Jacobs
Award for Imagination in Service to Society:
Cixin Liu
Award for Innovator:
Jill Tarter
Conference and Awards Program
2017 Awards
Award for Lifetime Achievement:
Stephen Hawking, PhD, Theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Cambridge professor
Award for Imagination in Service to Society:
Kim Stanley Robinson, Author of science fiction, including the Mars trilogy
Award for Innovator:
John Hendricks, Founder and former Chairman of Discovery Communications, Founder and Chairman of CuriosityStream
Conference and Awards Program
2016 Awards
Award for Lifetime Achievement:
The National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA)
Award for Imagination in Service to Society:
Bran Ferren, co-founder and chief executive officer of Applied Minds
Award for Innovator:
Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon.com President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board
2015 Awards
Award for Lifetime Achievement:
Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works, site of famed technological achievements and breakthroughs including pivotal aerospace milestones, for decades of imaginative technology and energy engineering
Award for Imagination in Service to Society:
Margaret Atwood, Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, and environmental activist
Award for Innovator:
Greg Wyler, founder of OneWeb and O3b, for pioneering new approaches to satellite communications
2014 Awards
Award for Lifetime Achievement:
Hon. Norman Augustine, World renowned leader in the U.S. Government and National Space Industry
Award for Imagination in Service to Society:
Larry Niven, Author of Science Fiction and Fantasy Works for adults and children
Award for Innovator:
Skybox Imaging, Groundbreaking space imaging leader which has embraced the new, small satellite technology
2013 Awards
Award for Lifetime Achievement:
Fred Ordway III, Engineer, Professor and Technical Consultant to Stanley Kubrick
Award for Imagination in Service to Society:
Ursula Le Guin, Author of Science Fiction and Fantasy Works for adults and children
Award for Innovator:
Mark Dankberg, Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of ViaSat
2012 Awards
Lifetime Achievement:
Vinton G. Cerf, widely known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet.” Cerf is the co-inventor of the architecture and the basic protocols of the Internet.
Sir Ken Robinson, PhD, was selected by the Foundation as its first-ever Imagination honoree. An internationally recognized leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation, Sir Ken works with governments in Europe, Asia, and the United States, with international agencies, Fortune 500 companies and some of the world’s leading cultural organizations.
Award for Innovator:
Pradman Kaul, CEO Of Hughes Network Systems, for his sustained leadership in advancing satellite communications.
Arthur C. Clarke Innovator’s Award:
2011: Elon Musk, founder of PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla, for his ambitious career-long pursuit of three “important problems” near and dear to the heart of Sir Arthur Clarke – the Internet, clean energy, and space.
2010: Guiliano Berretta, for inspirational leadership in the evolution of European telecommunications.
2009: Steven Squyres for pioneering work in the exploration of the planet Mars.
2007/2008: Peter Diamandis, for pioneering work in the promotion of personal spaceflight (Cosmos Club)
2006: Robert T. Bigalow, for pioneering development of versatile space habitats (Cosmos Club)
2005: Dr. Brad Edwards, for creating a company and taking the lead in the design of a space elevator that could move cargo to the Clarke Orbit from the Earth’s Surface 2005 (Cosmos Club)
2003: DK. Sachdev and Joseph Campanella, for designing and implementing the world’s first audio broadcasting satellite (Kreeger Art Museum 2003)
The Arthur C. Clarke Lifetime Achievement Award
2011: Freeman Dyson, Ph.D. renown physicist and mathematician, for his exceptional career across multiple disciplines, including quantum electrodynamics, invention of the Dyson series, his 20th Century work in the use of nuclear power for space flight, and design of the TRIGA, a small, inherently safe nuclear reactor used throughout the world for the production of isotopes.
2010: Simon P. “Pete” Worden, for pioneering work in astrophysics, and in military and civilian space missions.
2009: Ray Kurzweil, for lifetime achievement as an inventor and futurist in computer-based technologies
2007/2008: David W. Thompson, for visionary leadership in creative space systems and missions (Cosmos Club)
2006: Walter Cronkite, for bringing the wonders of space into our lives (Cosmos Club)
2005: Ben Bova, Noted Science Fiction Writer (Cosmos Club)
2004: Claude Goumy, former Chairman of the Board of Marconi-Matra, Founder of EADS (Cosmos Club)
2003: Rober Berry, Chairman of the Board, Space Systems, Loral (Kreeger Art Museum)
2002: Santiago Astrain, first Director General of Intelsat (Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum)