The Robert Henry Thurston Lecture Award (Thurston Award or Thurston Lecture) is an honor of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the oldest named lectureship in mechanical engineering. Established in 1925, it is named in honor of Robert Henry Thurston, the first president of ASME, and is awarded each year to a leader in pure and/or applied science or engineering to deliver a lecture on a subject of broad interest to engineers. It is the only award administered directly by ASME's central scientific body, the Technical and Engineering Communities Sector, and the recipient delivers the Thurston Lecture as the main plenary lecture at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE).
History The lectureship was established in 1925 in honor of Robert Henry Thurston (1839–1903), who served as the first president of ASME. The inaugural lecture was delivered in 1925 by the metallurgist Zay Jeffries, on the subject "Engineering and Science". For most of its history the lecture was administered at the division level. In 2000 ASME elevated it to a Society-level award, beginning with recipient John W. Hutchinson in 2001. As a Society-level award, a single recipient is named each year and selected as a leader in pure and/or applied science or engineering.
Recipients and notable lectures Recipients of the lectureship include engineers and scientists who have received major national and international honors. Jack Kilby (1990) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the integrated circuit, as well as the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Other recipients have received the National Medal of Science, including Theodore von Kármán and Yuan-Cheng Fung (1985), while Chauncey Starr (1976) received the National Medal of Technology. Over 80% of recipients since the founding of the National Academy of Engineering are fellows of the NAE, and several, such as Fung, Hutchinson, George F. Carrier, Stephen Crandall, Jacob Den Hartog, Hugh Dryden, Howard Emmons, Huajian Gao, Yonggang Huang, Van C. Mow, Robert Nerem, John Rogers, Ares Rosakis, Zhigang Suo and Savio Woo belong to multiple United States national academies. Several Thurston Lectures have had a lasting scholarly influence. The 1950 lecture by Theodore von Kármán, "What Price Speed?", introduced the concept of specific power and the diagram now known as the Gabrielli–von Kármán diagram, comparing the efficiency of different modes of transport.
Society-level award (2001–present)
Division-level award (1969–2000)
Notable earlier awardees (1925-1969)
See also List of engineering awards American Society of Mechanical Engineers#Awards
References
External links Official website