Recognizing Tomorrow's Leaders Today

Today's young inventors are tomorrow's technological and entrepreneurial leaders. The $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize seeks to support a community of inventors at MIT and to recognize and inspire these burgeoning inventors and innovators.

The student prize is awarded annually to an MIT senior or graduate student who has created or improved a product or process, applied a technology in a new way, redesigned a system, or in other ways displayed a portfolio of inventiveness. Award winners gain invaluable exposure to the science, business and investment communities through national press around this award.

The Lemelson-MIT Collegiate Student Prize Program currently funds two additional student prizes to recognize students who demonstrate remarkable inventiveness: $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Illinois Student Prize at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Past winners include Alice Chen for her invention in tissue engineering human liver cells in mice, Miles Barr for his fabrication of solar cells on every day substrates, like paper, Geoff von Maltzahn for developing therapeutics to fight cancer, Carl Dietrich for developing the Transition, a Personal Air Vehicle, and Amy Smith for inventing low-tech devices for addressing problems in developing countries. Find out more about past recipients in our Winners' Circle.

Eligibility Requirements | Selection Process | Application Guidelines